The Unending Scourge Of Lassa Fever - A Cause For Global Concern

Abstract

It All Started From Anonymity And Confusion At The Bingham Memorial Hospital In Jos North-Central Nigeria When Laura Wine (An American Missionary Nurse) Was Referred From Lassa With A Strange Ailment That Has Defied All Initial Treatments. The Word "Lassa" Is The Name Of A Village In The Present Day Askira/Uba Local Government Area Of Borno State, North-Eastern Nigeria. Laura Died Of That Strange Disease Not Long After Her Admission. But Two Of Her Nurses (Charlette Shaw And Lilly Pinneo) Also Came Down With Similar Presentation Barely A Week After Their Contact. Miss Shaw Also Died But Pinneo Was Flown To United States Of America Where She Recovered After Nine Weeks Of Admission At The Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital In Manhattan. 

What Is Lassa Fever? The Mystery Of Lassa Was Unraveled When Jordi Casals And His Co-Workers At The Yale Arbovirus Research Unit *Yaru) New Haven, Connecticut Isolated Lassa Virus From Specimens Of The First Three Victims. Lassa Virus Was Thus Named After Lassa Village In The North Eastern Part Of Nigeria Where In 1969 An Outbreak Of A Disease Affected American Missionary Nurses And Brought The Disease To Western Attention Forthe First Time. Lassa Fever Is An Acute Viral Zoonotic Illness Caused By Lassa Virus, A Virus Belonging To The Arenaviridae Family. These Group Of Viruses Are Known To Be Responsible For Severe Haemorrhagic Fever Characterized By Fever, Muscle Aches, Sore Throat, Nausea, Vomiting And, Chest And Abdominal Pain. Lassa Fever Is The Most Frequent Hemorrhagic Fever Observed In West Africa And Is Endemic In Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia And Nigeria. Insights From Remote Published Records Revealed Clinical Entities Resembling Lassa Fever Which Were Recognized In The Late 1930s And Called "Savannah Typhus" By French Workers. 

Clinical Presentation About 80 Percent Of Human Infections Are Asymptomatic With The Remainder Experiencing Severe Multi-System Disease And The Virus Affecting Several Organs In The Body Such As The Liver, Spleen And Kidneys. Peak Incidence Was Thought To Be In The Dry Season, But Data Collected In Sierra Leone Shows Peaks In The Overlap With The Wet Season. The Symptoms And Signs Include Fever, Nausea And Vomiting, Chest Pain, Periorbital Oedema, Puffy Face, Puffy Checks, Oedema, Dehydration, Retrosternal Pain, Conjunctival Injection, Fainting Attacks, Bleeding From Orifices, Hypotension, Shock And Coma. Other Signs Are Pleural Effusion, Ascites, Cerebral Oedema, Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome And Poor Renal Function. Clinically, A Lassa Fever Infection Is Difficult To Distinguish From Other Viral Hermorrhagic Fevers, Such As Ebola And Marburg, And From More Common Febrile Illnesses Such As Malaria Or Typhoid Fever.