Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
AFP
Decade since Ebola, Sierra Leone fights another deadly fever
Alice CHANCELLOR
Thu, July 4, 2024 at 1:59 AM CDT
...
In Kenema district, an early Ebola epicentre, scientists are using the lessons learned a decade ago to try to stop Lassa fever in its tracks.
...
Proximity to the forest, rudimentary mud construction, and uncovered grain and water storage make the dwellings "five-star hotels" for rats, said Lansana Kanneh, 58, field supervisor at the region's Kenema Government Hospital (KGH).
...
Patients normally arrive in the 14-bed isolation ward during the dry season from November to May, but this once-predictable pattern is increasingly uncertain.
- 'Lassa blood' -
"Now we see cases year-round," said Donald Grant, head of the KGH Lassa fever programme.
The team are also noticing Lassa beyond traditionally endemic zones, with Grant suspecting an improvement in testing as well as deforestation driving rodents into closer contact with humans.
Over the past decade, KGH has also seen an alarming uptick in Lassa patient mortality, which now stands at over 50 percent.
"We've seen a lot of these cases coming in in their late stages," said Kanneh.
"Sometimes they only spend 24 to 48 hours in the hospital, and they die."
...
acc/kjm
https://www.yahoo.com/news/decade-since-ebola-sierra-leone-065935730.html
Decade since Ebola, Sierra Leone fights another deadly fever
Alice CHANCELLOR
Thu, July 4, 2024 at 1:59 AM CDT
...
In Kenema district, an early Ebola epicentre, scientists are using the lessons learned a decade ago to try to stop Lassa fever in its tracks.
...
Proximity to the forest, rudimentary mud construction, and uncovered grain and water storage make the dwellings "five-star hotels" for rats, said Lansana Kanneh, 58, field supervisor at the region's Kenema Government Hospital (KGH).
...
Patients normally arrive in the 14-bed isolation ward during the dry season from November to May, but this once-predictable pattern is increasingly uncertain.
- 'Lassa blood' -
"Now we see cases year-round," said Donald Grant, head of the KGH Lassa fever programme.
The team are also noticing Lassa beyond traditionally endemic zones, with Grant suspecting an improvement in testing as well as deforestation driving rodents into closer contact with humans.
Over the past decade, KGH has also seen an alarming uptick in Lassa patient mortality, which now stands at over 50 percent.
"We've seen a lot of these cases coming in in their late stages," said Kanneh.
"Sometimes they only spend 24 to 48 hours in the hospital, and they die."
...
acc/kjm
https://www.yahoo.com/news/decade-since-ebola-sierra-leone-065935730.html