Tom Kerkering, professor of medicine at the Medical College of Virginia, says that eventually the virus causes the person to hemorrhage because the body loses its blood clotting agents, called platelets. The virus also makes the cells in the body more apt to burst open and release their fluids. Some of these fluids leak into the lung, so someone can die by drowning in their own fluids. The sweating from the fever, the internal bleeding, and the leaky tissue causes severe dehydration, causing the body to go into shock. The body cannot live without fluid and blood to feed the brain tissue.
Organs also stop functioning.
Most people become unconscious at the end so they are not aware of the experience they are having. Most victims die from shock after days of high fever, chest pains, vomiting and extensive bleeding. Patients who are intensively treated with replacement fluids can survive the ordeal. The Web Copyright 2001 ABC News Internet Ventures.