A man who had recently traveled to Liberia has died in New Jersey of Lassa fever. State health officials and a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working to identify anyone who came into contact with him. Health officials say there is little chance that the man passed the infection to anyone else.
Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease that is similar to Ebola. It has similar symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding, but it is not as easily spread as Ebola. Lassa also has a much smaller mortality rate, with only about 1% of patients dying compared to 70% of patients with Ebola. It is common infection in West Africa.
The man, who has not been identified, traveled regularly to Liberia for work. He had returned to the United States from Liberia, with a stop-over in Morocco, on May 17. At the beginning of his trip and on his arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, his temperature was measured and was normal. On May 18, however, he went to an unidentified hospital in New Jersey with a sore throat and a fever. He was sent home, but was actively monitored, which meant that public health officials called his home to ask about symptoms. Health officials were told he had no fever for three days, but then he returned to the hospital and was admitted on May 22 and then transferred to another hospital.
Unlike Ebola, which usually causes a steady fever, a patient with Lassa may have a temperature that goes up and down.
According to the CDC, this is only the sixth case of Lassa fever in the United States since 1969. There has never been a known case of Lassa that that was transmitted from one person to another within the United States. In West Africa, Lassa is carried by rodents and humans can contract it by coming into contact with infected urine or feces. Rarely, it can be transmitted by coming into contact with an infected person's blood.
