United States: The authorities want to establish the cause of death of an Iowa resident who died on Monday as Lassa fever, a deadly viral disease that is usually unheard of in America.
More about the news
The patient came back to the US from West Africa early this month. The person was not ill while flying, and, therefore, the risk to other passengers is “extremely low,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is not transmitted through handshakes, and the patients are not thought to be contagious before developing the symptoms.
The patient had been admitted in isolation for treatment at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center.
Nebraska Laboratory Response Network tested early Monday confirmed the patient was presumptive positive for Lassa fever.
If positive, it would become only the ninth documented case of Lassa fever since 1969 in persons coming to the United States from areas in which the disease is known to exist.
What more are the experts stating?
Local health departments are working with the CDC to track other individuals who may have come into close contact with the patient once he began showing signs of the illness.
Mild symptoms that are often associated with the disease include fever, fatigue, and headache.
It is recommended that some people have vomiting, breathing problems, swelling of the face, and pain in the back, chest, or stomach.
Close contact persons shall be observed for the next 21 days. State and local health officials are now trying to find out how the patient, who they did not name, acquired the virus.
Preliminary data show that the patient had an interaction with rodents in West Africa. The virus is hosted by rodents and transmitted to humans through the urine or feces droppings of affected creatures.
It is sometimes passed from person to person by contact with an infected person’s blood or other body fluids and through sexual contact or through contact with mucous membranes.