Lassa Fever in the UK

[Gert van der Hoek]

HOSPITAL IN TROPICAL DISEASE ALERT

hg.editorial@archant.co.uk

28 January 2009

Doctors and nurses from Homerton University Hospital who may have cared for a man suffering from a rare tropical disease have been put on alert.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is talking to staff after a patient who visited Nigeria was diagnosed with Lassa fever last Thursday.

The 66-year-old man is being treated at the high-security infectious diseases unit at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead was in a stable condition as the Gazette went to press yesterday (Wednesday).

Lassa fever is an infection caused by a virus which is common in parts of west Africa, but rarely seen in this country. There have been only 10 confirmed cases of the virus in the UK since 1970.

The HPA said the patient was admitted to the Homerton on January 8 with flu-like symptoms. Doctors carried out tests for infections associated with travel to the African continent. The tests proved negative.

Two weeks later, the patient was transferred to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases at University College Hospital in central London.

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/con...=newshkyg&itemid=WeED28 Jan 2009 13:40:04:410

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Lassa Fever in the UK

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hfHPzuH7VoStAnTDh6alsJ4czZyw

Man dies of Lassa fever

A patient being treated in hospital for Lassa fever has died, it has been confirmed.

The 66-year-old man, from east London, died on Thursday afternoon following a sudden deterioration in his condition, a spokesman from London's Royal Free Hospital said.

The pensioner, who has not been identified, was admitted to the hospital last week.

A hospital spokesman said: "We can confirm that the 66-year-old Lassa fever patient admitted to the high security infectious diseases unit (HSIDU) at the Royal Free Hospital last week died ... of complications due to his illness."

The man had been travelling in Nigeria prior to his admission to the hospital. His next of kin have been informed.

A spokeswoman from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said there was no risk of contamination to the public.

Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus and is endemic in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the Central African Republic.

Hundreds of thousands of people are infected in these countries each year and isolated cases have been seen in Europe and the US. Infection also occurs in other African countries including Mali, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Around eight in 10 people infected with Lassa virus develop mild or no symptoms, but in 20% of cases people will have severe illness.

Symptoms include fever, headache, sore throat, a cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and muscle pain. Around 2% of all patients die from the illness and death rates are particularly high in women in the final months of pregnancy. A common complication of Lassa fever is deafness.