American dies from Lassa fever after returning from Liberia

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
He did not have Ebola but the symptoms are much like it. An American man who returned from Liberia (hard hit with Ebola in 2014) died from Lassa fever in New Jersey after returning from Liberia recently.
After returning on the 17th May, 2015 he went to a hospital complaining of a sore throat and fever as well as fatigue. He did not have a fever when he returned from Liberia, sources say.
Like Ebola, Lassa fever can produce bleeding but unlike Ebola the fatality is only 1% as compared to 70% for Ebola. It is also less contagious than Ebola.
According to reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the man died from a disease so rare to the United States as to not cause alarm. It is the sixth documented case since 1969.
According to reports, he did not tell the Authorities that he had travelled to West Africa. His test came back positive and he was placed in isolation where he died the same day, say the CDC.
“Lassa fever is a viral disease common in West Africa but rarely seen in the United States. There has never been person-to-person transmission of Lassa fever documented in the United States. The virus is not transmitted through casual contact,” said the CDC statement, “and patients are not believed to be infectious before the onset of symptoms.”
There was one case documented in Minnesota last year.
The CDC said the risk to other people in that state was low but that they would still be tracking patients and monitoring anyone who had been in contact with the man over the next 21 days.
Carried by rodents who transmit the disease via droppings and urine, the disease kills 5 000 a year in West Africa alone.