Lassa Fever - What you should know!
The Lassa fever also called Lassa hemorrhagic fever is a disease native to Africa, first discovered in Borno, Nigeria West Africa in 1969 in a town called Lassa from whence the disease got it's name.
Known Cases
The lassa fever like ebola and other diseases is not new, neither is it just killing for the first time. Lassa fever has been out there for a while and it has claimed many lives .
Lassa fever has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in West African countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and so on
In 2015 alone, cases of the fever has been reported in Adamawa, Ife, Lagos which are cities in Nigeria and states like Niger, Nassarawa, Rivers, Bauchi, Kano, Rivers, and so on have all reported cases of the disease.
Since the outbreak of the fever in Nigeria, over 36 lives have passed away thanks to the fever .
Transmission
Lassa virus is transmitted by animals which are the vectors of the disease. The multimammate mice is the major culprit responsible for transmitting the fever unfortunately, the same animal is one of the most abundant rodents species in west Africa which explains why the disease is rampant here
The disease is contacted through contact with infected animal faeces, contact through cuts on skin, through an infected person or by eating an infected animal.
Symptoms
Symptoms of lassa fever can include
- Fever characterised by high body temperature
-Headaches, lots of
-Pains in abdomen and chest region
-Sore Throat
-Vomiting
-Stooling
-Blood coming out from body parts like mouth, nose, vagina,
-Ultimately death will result if not treated
Diagnosis
Lassa fever is quite difficult to diagnose in Africa due to obvious reasons like ineffective equipment personnel and methods. More so, the fever shares a resemblance with ebola, malaria and normal fever types common Africa.
However, in cases of suspected lassa fever, patients should be taken to standard hospitals like states or Federal hospitals with appropriate facilities , personnel and equipments.
Prevention
-Good hygiene can prevent Lassa fever .
-Infected fellows should be taken to hospitals and isolated, physical contact should be avoided.
-Hygienes like cleaning the house, getting rid of mice by the use of rodenticides
-Avoid eating mice
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, 28 January 2016
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