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Ebola and Lassa are hemorrhagic fevers, made memorable by the horrific symptoms that can accompany them.

First identified about four decades ago, these killer viruses can cause their victims to bleed both internally and from the mucosal membranes of the eyes, nose and elsewhere. A severe infection can also produce neurological problems, including tremors and brain swelling.

But mounting evidence indicates these terrifying diseases, which occur in Africa, may not be the terrifying new arrivals called emerging infectious diseases they have been labeled, a team of researchers argues.

Genetic evidence and signs of widespread exposure to these diseases in parts of Africa indicate they are, in fact, well-established diseases only discovered by Western medicine about 40 years ago, they say.

Tricky symptoms

The horrific symptoms associated with these hemorrhagic fevers may have obscured their more mundane manifestations, said researcher Pardis Sabeti, an associate professor at Harvard University.

"You notice something when it does something horrible, and you just assume that whenever it happens, the horrible thing happens," Sabeti said. "You see what is visible, and you don't see what is not."

Contrary to popular perception, the hemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola and Lassa, can cause general, flulike symptoms fever, sore throat, cough particularly during early onset. This can make them easily confused with other common diseases in Africa, such as typhoid fever and malaria, said Stephen Gire, a research scientist in Sabetis lab.

What's more, many patients never go to the hospital; deaths associated with fever are common in many parts of the developing world, Sabeti, Gire and colleagues write.

Sabeti and Gire are among researchers who have been studying Lassa and helping communities affected by it as part of an international collaboration with Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone and the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Nigeria.

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The Terrifying Ebola Virus Is More Common Than We Thought