Lassa fever suspected in death of Iowa resident who traveled to West
Africa
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[October 29, 2024]
Health officials are investigating the death Monday of an Iowa resident
as a suspected case of Lassa fever, a frightening viral disease rarely
seen in the U.S., health officials said.
The patient returned to the U.S. from West Africa early this month. The
person was not sick while traveling, so the risk to fellow airline
passengers is “extremely low,” officials with the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said. The virus is not spread by casual
contact and patients are not believed to be infectious before symptoms
occur.
The patient had been hospitalized in isolation at the University of Iowa
Health Care Medical Center. Testing by the Nebraska Laboratory Response
Network early Monday showed that the patient was presumptively positive
for 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 assisting Iowa health officials to identify people who had
contact with the patient after symptoms began. Symptoms are typically
mild and include fever, fatigue and headache. Some people may develop
vomiting, difficulty breathing, facial swelling and pain in the back,
chest or stomach.
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Those identified as close contacts
will be monitored for 21 days.
State and local health officials are working to
learn how the patient, who they did not identify, became infected.
Early information suggests the patient had contact with rodents in
West Africa. The virus is carried by rodents and spread to humans
through contact with urine or feces droppings of infected animals.
In rare cases, it can be transmitted among people through direct
contact with a sick person's blood or bodily fluids, through mucous
membranes or through sexual contact.
About 100,000 to 300,000 cases of Lassa fever and about 5,000 deaths
occur in West Africa each year.
—
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