Iowa man dies from Lassa fever and Ebola virus, CDC says

The man recently returned from a trip to West Africa. Lassa fever is a viral disease similar to the Ebola virus.

An eastern Iowa man died Monday from an Ebola-like viral disease he likely contracted during a recent trip to West Africa.

The man is the ninth case of Lassa fever in the United States in more than half a century, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lassa fever is often transmitted through the waste of an infected rodent found in West Africa. The middle-aged Iowa resident returned from traveling in the region in early October, Iowa health officials said in a release. press release.

The CDC is conducting final laboratory testing after a person tested presumptive positive on Monday. The man died Monday afternoon while hospitalized at the University of Iowa Medical Center in isolation from other patients. Lassa fever has symptoms similar to the Ebola virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever. However, experts say the likelihood of death from Ebola is much lower.

State and federal officials have said the risk of transmission is low. The person did not become ill while traveling, so the risk of spreading the disease to fellow travelers is “extremely low,” according to the CDC.

“We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing necessary public health protocols,” Dr. Robert Cruz, medical director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.

Lassa fever is usually spread through the urine or feces of infected rodents. The West African polymamy rat is the only known host of the virus. These rats are native to sub-Saharan Africa, and Lassa fever has been found in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria. CDC said. People can transmit it through blood or body fluids when they have active symptoms.

In a press release, CDC officials said preliminary information indicates the patient may have been exposed to rodents during a visit to West Africa. Officials, who declined to provide details about the person, are working to identify other people who were in contact with the person around the time symptoms began.

People who are in close contact with an infected person will be monitored for three weeks, according to the CDC. The incubation period of the virus ranges from two to 21 days.

Before this case, eight other people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Lassa fever after returning from a region where Lassa fever was detected, according to the CDC. About 5,000 people die from the virus each year in West Africa, out of an estimated 100,000–300,000 cases per year. Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Experts say most people have mild or no symptoms and deaths are rare.

The mortality rate from Lassa fever is much lower than from Ebola or Marburg virus, another hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rate” said Dr. David Hamer, professor of global health and medicine at Boston University. In the United States, it is unlikely that rats will contract Lassa fever or spread it to people, he said.

In rural areas of West Africa, rats typically transmit the disease by being near human food sources. People can then inhale or come into contact with the virus through rat urine or feces or directly from infected rats.

Once someone gets sick, there is a risk of the infection spreading among others, especially family members, friends and health care workers who care for patients with the virus. It is also believed that infections can be transmitted sexually through the exchange of bodily fluids.

Human transmission, Hamer said, “raises concern about potential introduction and spread in the United States.”.However, he noted: “This is the ninth case since the sixties. So it was a rare case.”

The last case of Lassa fever was imported into the United States in 2016, according to the data. federal records. Then a 33-year-old nurse from Georgia became infected after treating an infected patient in Togo. She eventually recovered. The last death from the virus occurred in 2015, when a 55-year-old New Jersey man became infected after working in Liberia and coming into contact with rodents and their waste.

With Monday’s deaths, officials identified four Americans who have died from Lassa fever out of nine reported cases here.

What are the symptoms of Lassa fever?

Signs and symptoms of Lassa usually appear gradually, according to African health officials. Infections are treated with the antiviral drug ribavirin.

Symptoms include fever, weakness and malaise, followed by headache, sore throat, muscle or chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough and stomach pain, according to the African agency that monitors disease control. People with severe cases sometimes have swelling of the face, fluid in the lungs, bleeding from the mouth, nose, genitals or gastrointestinal tract, and low blood pressure.

Deafness occurs in 25% of survivors, but most of these patients regain hearing in the following months. According to the African Disease Control Agency, death usually occurs within two weeks of the onset of the disease.

The first documented cases of Lassa fever in the United States occurred in 1969. The viral disease takes its name from the Nigerian city where two missionary nurses died from itAccording to the UK Health Security Agency.

Infections usually occur during the dry season, from December to April, following the reproductive cycle of polymama rats during the wet season. World Health Organization said.