Two cases of Lassa fever, similar to Ebola, found in UK

Health authorities of great Britain They reported finding two carriers from a stranger virus which produce lassa feverdiseases similar to those caused by del Ebolawhich is endemic in some areas of the African continent.

According to a report by the UK’s Health Safety Board, those infected are from a family — where there may be a third case — who recently traveled to West Africa, an area where there is more of the virus. Contagion results from contact with food. contaminated with rat urine or feces.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the African countries endemic to Lassa fever are Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, although their presence in other countries on the continent is not ruled out. .

On the British health authority’s list, for a decade no one has tested positive for the Lassa fever virus, a disease that has only sickened eight people since the 1980s in England.

Despite the fact that scientific evidence suggests that the virus is not transmissible between people, the UK’s Health Safety Agency is monitoring cases reported in the country.

Most patients with Lassa fever usually recover completely; However, it presents some symptoms like fever, sore throat, headache, stomach ache, vomiting, diarrhea and cough.

For their part, patients who develop severe disease may have more severe consequences, according to WHO: bleeding, deafness, hypotension and facial swelling.

Stuart Martin

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