Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria, in the Yedseram river valley at the south end of Lake Chad. Clinical cases of the disease had been known for over a decade but had not been connected with a viral pathogen. The infection is endemic in West African countries, and causes 300,000–500,000 cases annually, with approximately 5,000 deaths. ...
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Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria, in the Yedseram river valley at the south end of Lake Chad. Clinical cases of the disease had been known for over a decade but had not been connected with a viral pathogen. The infection is endemic in West African countries, and causes 300,000–500,000 cases annually, with approximately 5,000 deaths. Outbreaks of the disease have been observed in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Central African Republic, but it is believed that human infections also exist in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Senegal. The primary animal host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Multimammate Mouse (Mastomys natalensis), an animal indigenous to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The virus is probably transmitted by contact with the feces or urine of animals accessing grain stores in residences.
Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus, a member...
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