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390158

The Lassa fever outbreak in Africa: Correspondence

Article

Last updated: 04 May 2025

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Subjects

-

Tags

Medical virology

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the world, Nigeria is dealing with a massive outbreak of Lassa fever, an acute hemorrhagic disease caused by the Lassa virus, which belongs to the arenavirus family and spreads through the contamination of food and household items such as urine or feces of infected multimammate rats. Lassa fever is endemic in Africa and has been claimed to have afflicted over 2 million individuals. According to previous study, between 300,000 and 500,000 cases are detected each year, with 5000 deaths. Lassa virus has a relatively long incubation period ranging from 6 to 21 days, making it one of the most commonly exported viral hemorrhagic fevers to non-endemic nations. This feature piques international interest in the Lassa virus in terms of global health security. It is designated as a Biosafety Level 4 agent because of its high case fatality rate, the potential for easy dissemination via human-human contact, the severity of infectivity, lack of effective vaccinations and treatments, and spread by aerosol.

DOI

10.21608/mid.2024.324135.2250

Keywords

Lassa fever, hemorrhagic fever, Africa

Authors

First Name

Safayet

Last Name

Jamil

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh , Department of Public and Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Frontier University Garowe (FUG), Puntland, Somalia

Email

safayet241-41-019@diu.edu.bd

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-2313-4920

First Name

Neeru

Last Name

Chaudhary

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University, New Delhi, India

Email

khaymichaudhary97@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Faisal

Last Name

Muhammad

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Public and Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Frontier University Garowe (FUG), Puntland, Somalia

Email

fokkanya@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

ABM

Last Name

Chowdhury

MiddleName

Alauddin

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh

Email

dralauddin@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd

City

Dhaka

Orcid

-

First Name

Asma

Last Name

Akhter

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh

Email

asma241-41-020@diu.edu.bd

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

6

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

55370

Issue Date

2025-05-01

Receive Date

2024-09-26

Publish Date

2025-05-01

Page Start

560

Page End

561

Print ISSN

2682-4132

Online ISSN

2682-4140

Article File

MID_Volume 6_Issue 2_Pages 560-561.pdf

PDF . 100.6kB

Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/article_390158.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=390158

Order

390,158

Type

Letter to the Editor

Type Code

1,165

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Microbes and Infectious Diseases

Publication Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

The Lassa fever outbreak in Africa: Correspondence

Details

Type

Article

Created At

04 May 2025