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Epidemic outbreak of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone: two dead
FREETOWN - An outbreak of Lassa fever, hemorrhagic fever common in several countries in West Africa, emerged in Sierra Leone where it has already caused two deaths, officials said Monday the health of Sierra Leone.
A 45 year old woman and her six year old son died in a private hospital in the city of Kameni (north), said Dr. Yankum Bah, a manager of health services in this region.
"After laboratory tests, we concluded that [they] died of Lassa fever," he said.
Seven other people are suffering from fever, including three in serious condition.
The rat is the cause of Lassa fever (named after a Nigerian city where she appeared for the first time in 1969). The virus is then transmitted between humans via direct contact with blood, urine or other body fluids of an infected person.
"We asked people not to eat rats," whose meat is commonly consumed in northern Sierra Leone, said another senior health services in this part of the country, Percy Blango.
The first clinical signs (fever, vomiting, abdominal pain) are common to other diseases such as malaria, dysentery and yellow fever, and make it difficult to diagnose the disease at an early stage.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 300,000 to 500,000 people are affected each year by the fever in West Africa, including about 5,000 die.
Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but [affects] several other key countries, including Senegal.
(© AFP / September 27, 2010 4:43 p.m.)
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Epidemic outbreak of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone: two dead
FREETOWN - An outbreak of Lassa fever, hemorrhagic fever common in several countries in West Africa, emerged in Sierra Leone where it has already caused two deaths, officials said Monday the health of Sierra Leone.
A 45 year old woman and her six year old son died in a private hospital in the city of Kameni (north), said Dr. Yankum Bah, a manager of health services in this region.
"After laboratory tests, we concluded that [they] died of Lassa fever," he said.
Seven other people are suffering from fever, including three in serious condition.
The rat is the cause of Lassa fever (named after a Nigerian city where she appeared for the first time in 1969). The virus is then transmitted between humans via direct contact with blood, urine or other body fluids of an infected person.
"We asked people not to eat rats," whose meat is commonly consumed in northern Sierra Leone, said another senior health services in this part of the country, Percy Blango.
The first clinical signs (fever, vomiting, abdominal pain) are common to other diseases such as malaria, dysentery and yellow fever, and make it difficult to diagnose the disease at an early stage.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 300,000 to 500,000 people are affected each year by the fever in West Africa, including about 5,000 die.
Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but [affects] several other key countries, including Senegal.
(© AFP / September 27, 2010 4:43 p.m.)
...
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Read phoneticallyDictionary - View detailed dictionary
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