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Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever endemic to western Africa.
**Before 2024, eight travel-associated cases had been identified in the United
States** — in fifty-five years.
In late 2024 there was a ninth: **a fatal case in Iowa, in a patient returning
from Liberia**. The first US case diagnosed in eight years.
What one case costs
The investigation identified 180 contacts.
**Lassa fever virus testing was performed for five symptomatic contacts. All
laboratory results were negative.**
That is the shape of a viral haemorrhagic fever response: one patient, 180
people to trace and assess, five tested, no secondary cases. The effort is
enormous and the outcome is nothing happening — which is the point, and which
makes it easy to underestimate in advance.
The three lessons
Elicit a travel history from febrile patients. This case was diagnosed
because somebody connected a fever to a journey. A patient with fever and no
travel question asked is a patient whose Lassa fever is diagnosed later, or
not at all — and eight years since the last US case is a long time for
clinicians to keep the possibility in mind.
Plan for viral haemorrhagic fever before you have one, in both public
health departments and the medical community. A response of this size cannot
be improvised.
Rapid local testing capability. Five symptomatic contacts needed answers
quickly. Sending every specimen to a distant reference laboratory turns a
two-day question into a week of people isolated and afraid.
*Source: Von Stein DL, Barger A, Hennenfent A, et al. Notes from the Field:
Response to a Case of Travel-Associated Lassa Fever — Iowa, October–November
- MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.*
Licens: CC0 1.0 (allmän egendom) · Bearbetat efter www.cdc.gov
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