December 23, 2024
Death from Lassa fever, an Ebola-like virus, reported in Iowa in the United States

Death from Lassa fever, an Ebola-like virus, reported in Iowa in the United States

An Iowa person who recently returned to the United States from West Africa died after contracting Lassa fever, a virus that can cause Ebola-like illness in some patients. State health officials reported the case Monday.

“I want to assure Iowans that the risk of transmission is incredibly low in our state. We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing necessary public health protocols,” Robert Kruse, medical director for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement posted on the website. Department website.

The anonymous person was described as a middle-aged individual from eastern Iowa. The release said the person was treated at University of Iowa Health Care. It did not indicate how long the person had been treated or whether they had sought care elsewhere before being admitted to the hospital.

This is important because, although person-to-person spread of Lassa virus is rare, transmission can occur in health care settings, particularly if health workers do not realize they are dealing with a patient with the disease and do not take the appropriate medications. precautions.

Although cases of Lassa fever have been imported into the United States before, they are not common. The statement said there have been eight known imported cases, including the new one, over the past 55 years.

There was one case in May 2015, in a New Jersey resident who had traveled to Liberia, and another in a New Jersey resident in 2004. Both of these individuals died. Minnesota reported one case in 2014; this person has recovered.

Lassa fever is endemic in a number of West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. In these countries, the virus causes several hundred thousand infections and around 5,000 deaths each year.

The main source of the virus is a rodent called a multimammated rat. People contract the virus either by handling or eating infected rodents or by having rodents in their homes. Food or household items contaminated with the urine or droppings of infected rodents can transmit the disease.

Although severe Lassa fever causes symptoms similar to those seen with Ebola infection, it does not trigger large chains of human cases, as can occur in Ebola outbreaks, Armand Sprecher said. an expert in viral hemorrhagic fever who works for Doctors Without Borders.

“You don’t see a lot of human-to-human transmission,” Sprecher told STAT. “Most people get it at the source, at the reservoir. »

The World Health Organization says about eight in 10 people who contract the virus have no or only mild symptoms, including headache, fatigue and mild fever.

In those who develop severe illness, symptoms may include bleeding, difficulty breathing, vomiting and shock, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The WHO suggests that about 15% of people who develop severe Lassa disease die from it.

The mortality rate can be much higher in some places, said Robert Garry, a professor at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans who has studied Lassa fever for two decades. In Sierra Leone, where Garry is conducting research projects, the mortality rate among severe cases can be as high as 70%, he said. Good supportive care – such as fluid replenishment – ​​can increase the chances of survival, he said.

He acknowledged that most cases involved people infected through an animal source, but said some person-to-person transmission could occur, particularly in hospitals. “It happens in West Africa, even in places where they are very aware of the possibility [of Lassa cases]. So yeah, if you didn’t expect a disease like that to show up in your hospital, it could happen.

That said, Garry said he didn’t expect to see a transmission here. “There is very little chance of this spreading beyond the hospital setting. But they have to make the case contacts [investigations] and all that to be sure.

Of the diseases that cause viral hemorrhagic fevers – like Ebola and Marburg fever – Lassa is probably the one that is most commonly imported into non-endemic countries, Garry said.

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