BACKGROUND Lassa fever is a potentially fatal acute viral illness caused by Lassa virus which is carried by rodents and is endemic in some West African countries. Importation of emerging infections such as Lassa fever, Ebola Virus Disease and other viral hemorrhagic fevers into non endemic regions is a growing threat particularly as international travel and commitments in resolving conflicts in...

Today Lassa fever is mainly a disease of the developing world, however several imported cases have been reported in different parts of the world and there are growing concerns of the potentials of Lassa fever Virus as a biological weapon. Yet no tangible solution to this problem has been developed nearly half a decade after its identification. Hence, the paper is aimed at appraising the problem...

BACKGROUND Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic in West Africa. The reservoir host of the virus is a multimammate rat, Mastomys natalensis. Prevalence estimates of Lassa virus antibodies in humans vary greatly between studies, and the main modes of transmission of the virus from rodents to humans remain unclear. We aimed to (i) estimate the prevalence of Lassa virus-specific IgG ant...

vaccine effectiveness is 92% for persons who received 1 dose and 95% for those who received 2 doses (9). Assuming that vaccine effectiveness is lower shifts the curve (Figure) to the left and would result in a lower estimate of vaccination coverage. Second, different numbers of persons who received 1 and 2 doses complicate the identification of overall vaccine effectiveness. Third, vaccination ...

We describe the isolation and characterization of a new Lassa virus strain imported into Germany by a traveler who had visited Ghana, Côte D'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. This strain, designated "AV," originated from a region in West Africa where Lassa fever has not been reported. Viral S RNA isolated from the patient's serum was amplified and sequenced. A long-range reverse transcription polymeras...

Human sera from Lodwar (77 sera), Nzoia (841 sera), Masinga (251 sera), Laisamis (174 sera) and the Malindi/Kilifi area (556 sera) in Kenya were tested by indirect immunofluorescence for antibodies against Marburg, Ebola (Zaire and Sudan strains), Congo haemorrhagic fever, Rift Valley fever and Lassa viruses. Antibodies against Ebola virus, particularly the Zaire strain, were detected in all re...

We studied the therapeutic potential of favipiravir (T-705) for Lassa fever, both alone and in combination with ribavirin. Favipiravir suppressed Lassa virus replication in cell culture by 5 log10 units. In a novel lethal mouse model, it lowered the viremia level and the virus load in organs and normalized levels of cell-damage markers. Treatment with 300 mg/kg per day, commenced 4 days after i...