Is Lassa Fever A New Global Scourge?

New Delhi: The battle with Coronavirus is not yet over and now comes news of one person in Britain dying from Lassa fever.

Health authorities in the country announced the first three cases of the disease in the country since 2009. The patient died at a hospital in Bedfordshire, north of London. All three people infected were from the same family in eastern England and recently travelled to West Africa, News18 reported.

What is Lassa?

• It is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness and belongs to the same family as the Ebola and Marburg viruses but is much less deadly.
• The name is after the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), a public health body, said close contacts of the patients were being traced with a view to “appropriate assessment, support and advice”. “The risk to the general public remains very low,” it added.
• 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 food items that are contaminated with the urine or faeces 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 mouth. Person-to-person transmission is more common in healthcare settings.

How dangerous is it?

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), a public health body, the risk to the general public remains very low. Close contacts of the patients were being traced with a view to “appropriate assessment, support and advice”.

Last month, the Nigerian authorities said they were battling rising cases of the disease that claimed dozens of lives. Infection numbers typically climb at the start of the year in a phenomenon linked to the dry season.

While severe illness can occur, most people make a complete recovery. The WHO pegs the overall mortality rate at 1% but the observed rate among patients admitted to hospital with severe cases is 15%.

Symptoms

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. Symptoms typically appear 1-3 weeks after exposure.

According to the CDC, the most common complication associated with the fever is deafness. In many such cases, the hearing loss can be permanent.