The Lassa virus (an arenavirus) is found in West Africa, where it sometimes causes a severe hemorrhagic illness called Lassa fever. Laboratory diagnosis has traditionally been by the indirect fluorescent-antibody (IFA) test. However, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for Lassa virus antigen and immunoglobulin M (IgM) and G (IgG) antibodies have been developed that are thought to be mo...

Lassa virus (LASV) is the causative agent of Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LF) in humans, a deadly disease endemic to West Africa that results in 5,000 to 10,000 deaths annually. Here we present results demonstrating that functional type I and type II interferon (IFN) signaling is required for efficient control of LASV dissemination and clearance.

The high pathogenicity of Lassa virus is assumed to involve resistance to the effects of interferon (IFN). We have analyzed the effects of alpha IFN (IFN-alpha), IFN-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) on replication of Lassa virus compared to the related, but less pathogenic, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Three low-passage Lassa virus strains (AV, NL, and CSF), isol...

ports on Lassa fever in southern and central parts of Nigeria. That healthcare workers are still at as high a risk of contracting and dying from the disease as they were 20 years ago (8) is alarming. A key to solving this problem would be the establishment of diagnostic facilities that can provide rapid molecular testing at referral centers in the disease-endemic zones. This testing would facil...

Viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) caused by arenaviruses are among the most devastating emerging human diseases. The most important pathogen among the arenaviruses is Lassa virus (LASV), the causative agent of Lassa fever that is endemic to West Africa. On the South American continent, the New World arenavirus Junin virus (JUNV), Machupo (MACV), Guanarito (GTOV), and Sabia virus (SABV) have emerg...

Transmission of Lassa virus (family Arenaviridae) from its natural rodent reservoir to humans can cause hemorrhagic fever, a clinical syndrome associated with high death rates. Lassa fever is endemic in West Africa and has been reported from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Nigeria (1-4). The geographically restricted occurrence of the disease is not well understood as its rodent host (Mastom...

Lassa fever, a viral disease, was first isolated in the late 1960s and affects 300,000 to 500.000 people, causing 5000, 10,000 fatalities annually across West Africa. Although there are studies on

To the Editor: Lassa fever affects ≈100,000 persons per year in West Af-rica (1). The disease is caused by Las-sa virus, an arenavirus, and is associated with bleeding and organ failure. The case-fatality rate in hospitalized patients is 10%–20%. The reservoir of the virus is multimammate mice (Mastomys natalensis). Investigations in the 1970s and 1980s pointed to the existence of 3 disease-end...

10.1128/JCM.40.7.2323-2330.2002. 2002, 40(7):2323. DOI: J. Clin. Microbiol. Günther Asper, Marcus Panning, Herbert Schmitz and Stephan Christian Drosten, Stephan Göttig, Stefan Schilling, Marcel Transcription-PCR Yellow Fever Virus by Real-Time Reverse Rift Valley Fever Virus, Dengue Virus, and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, of Ebola and Marburg Viruses, Lassa Virus, Rapid Detection and...