Context
First death has been reported in the United Kingdom from a rare rat-borne virus called Lassa fever, and two other cases are now being investigated who recently returned from West Africa.
What is Lassa fever, how does it spread?
- Lassa fever is an animal-borne, or zoonotic, acute viral illness.
- Lassa virus: The “multimammate rat” (Mastomys natalensis)
- The Lassa fever-causing virus is found in West Africa. It was first discovered in 1969 in Lassa, Nigeria.
- The discovery of this disease was made after two nurses died in Nigeria.
- The fever is spread by rats and is primarily found in countries in West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria where it is endemic.
- A person can become infected if they come in contact with household items of food that is contaminated with the urine or feces of an infected rat.
- It can also be spread, though rarely, if a person comes in contact with a sick person’s infected bodily fluids or through mucous membranes such as the eyes, nose or the mouth. Person-to-person transmission is more common in healthcare settings.
What are its symptoms?
- Symptoms typically appear 1-3 weeks after exposure. Mild symptoms include slight fever, fatigue, weakness and headache and more serious symptoms include bleeding, difficulty breathing, vomiting, facial swelling, pain in the chest, back, and abdomen and shock.
- Death can occur from two weeks of the onset of symptoms, usually as a result of multi-organ failure.
- Complications: The most common complication associated with the fever is deafness.
-
- Nearly one-third of those infected report various degrees of deafness.
- In many such cases, the hearing loss can be permanent. Significantly, deafness can occur in both mild as well as severe presentations of the fever.
