Symptoms of Ehrlichiosis Patients who are infected with ehrlichiosis will begin to feel symptoms between three and 16 days after being bitten by an infected tick. Ehrlichiosis is often very mild, with only flu-like symptoms. A patient may feel fine early in the day only to experience very severe, debilitating symptoms a few hours later. About one-third of HME patients and a smaller proportion of HGE patients develop a rash. It is not the circular rash that typifies Lyme cases.
Fever is nearly always present.
Other common symptoms are malaise, confusion, severe headache, muscle and joint aches, chills, cough, nausea, vomiting, and lack of appetite. In serious cases, the patients may develop mental abnormalities, breathing difficulties, and kidney problems. Symptoms that affect the central nervous system, including seizures, coma, a stiff neck, sensitivity to light, and others, may be mistaken for meningitis. There does not appear to be a chronic phase for the ehrlichiosis, although much is still unknown about the disease. In the US, ehrlichiosis does not yet need to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control so the true incidence of either form is unknown.