Tag Archives: Lassa fever

CDC issues a warning on Ebola-like virus in Iowa

CDC graph How deadly is Ebola-like virus

Important Takeaways:

  • An Iowa resident has died after contracting a frightening viral disease, similar to Ebola, that leaves victims bleeding from their eyeballs.
  • The patient had returned to the U.S. from West Africa earlier this month bringing the disease known as Lassa Fever, rarely seen in the U.S., back with them, health officials said.
  • The person was not sick while traveling meaning the risk to fellow airline passengers is ‘extremely low,’ officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
  • Patients are not believed to be infectious before symptoms occur and the virus is not spread by casual contact.
  • The patient, who has not been identified publicly, was placed in isolation in hospital at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center in Iowa City.
  • On Monday, testing by the Nebraska Laboratory Response Network revealed the patient had died from Lassa Fever.
  • If the results are confirmed, the Iowa case would be the ninth known case of Lassa Fever since 1969 in travelers returning to the U.S. from areas where the disease is found.
  • The CDC is now assisting Iowa health officials to identify people who had been in contact with the patient after symptoms began. Those identified as being in close contact will be monitored for three weeks.
  • Lassa Fever, which is caused by the Lassa virus, is a relatively common disease in West Africa, with between 100,000 and 300,000 cases diagnosed every year with around 5,000 deaths.

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U.S. doctor with Lassa fever en route to Atlanta from West Africa

ATLANTA (Reuters) – An American doctor who was working with missionaries in West Africa is being moved to an isolation ward at an Atlanta hospital on Friday with a suspected case of Lassa fever, a deadly hemorrhagic disease similar to Ebola, officials said.

The patient, who has not been identified publicly, was being flown in a specially equipped aircraft from Togo and was expected to arrive at Emory University Hospital sometime Friday or this weekend, officials said.

The isolation ward is where Emory successfully treated four Ebola patients in 2014, said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit.

“The take-away from this for the public, is that there is absolutely no risk to anyone,” he said. “We’ve shown that we can handle Ebola and this is a lot less communicable.”

Lassa fever has been endemic in Africa for many years, with up to 300,000 infections annually. Only about 3 percent presenting symptoms severe enough need hospitalization, Ribner said.

Of those hospitalized, about 20 percent of the cases are fatal, compared with a 70 percent rate for all patients who catch Ebola, which is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids.

“With Lassa, most of the people who get it never even know it,” Ribner said.

The worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history began in West Africa in December 2013, spreading to at least 11 countries on the continent before petering out. In all, more than 11,300 people died, almost all in the three worst-affected countries.

At its height, the Ebola outbreak sparked fear around the world, prompting governments and businesses to take emergency precautions.

An outbreak of Lassa fever is now underway in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization, and it is starting to spread to nearby countries including Togo.

According to a WHO statement, 159 suspected cases of Lassa fever and 82 deaths were reported between August 2015 and January 2016. Some media reports have said as many as 101 people have died as of February.

Like Ebola, Lassa causes a severe fever with bleeding, Ribner said. It is most commonly transmitted to people from rodent excrement, and it can be transmitted from person to person by contact with blood or bodily fluids, Ribner said.

He said the hospital will take every precaution and that the public should not be alarmed.

“You can’t catch it like you get the common cold,” he said. “We can handle this.”

(Editing By Frank McGurty, Bernard Orr)