Ebola 2.0? NJ Man Dies of Lassa Fever, Ebola’s Less Deadly Cousin

Tuesday, May 26, 2015
By Paul Martin

Lily Dane
The Daily Sheeple
May 26th, 2015

A New Jersey man died Monday evening after been diagnosed with Lassa fever, a frightening infectious disease from West Africa that is rarely seen in the United States.

The man recently returned from Liberia. He arrived at New York City’s JFK International Airport on May 17. After his return, he grew seriously ill and suffered from multiple organ failure, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Like Ebola, Lassa is a viral hemorrhagic fever, and like Ebola, Lassa is deadly: the number of infections per year in West Africa is estimated at 100,000 to 300,000, with approximately 5,000 deaths, according to the CDC.

The reservoir, or host, of Lassa virus is a rodent known as the “multimammate rat” (Mastomys natalensis). Because Mastomys rodents are rampant in West Africa and often live in and around homes, transmission is common, through ingestion of the animals themselves or via inhalation of infected particles in the air.

Rat-to-human transmission isn’t the only way the virus spreads: person-to-person transmission may occur after exposure to virus in the blood, tissue, secretions, or excretions of an infected individual. According to the CDC, casual contact (without exchange of bodily fluids) does not spread Lassa. Person-to-person transmission is common in health care settings when proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is not available or not used. Lassa virus may be spread in contaminated medical equipment, such as reused needles. (Uh oh – does all of this sound familiar?)

Symptoms of Lassa infection usually begin 1-3 weeks after contact with the virus.

The Rest…HERE

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