Lassa fever kill 8 in Benin, 170 under observation
Eight people have died in the west African nation of Benin from an
outbreak of Lassa fever, while 170 others have been placed under observation,
officials said Thursday.
Fourteen suspected cases of the virus have been identified,
with two confirmed and eight deaths in the small country bordering Nigeria,
said a joint statement from the World Health Organisation, WHO, Benin's health
ministry and United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF.
The outbreak has occurred in the north of the country of
some nine million people.
"A total of 170 contacts have been identified in the
towns of Tanguieta and Cobly and are under daily monitoring," the
statement said.
According to the WHO, Lassa fever is an acute haemorrhagic
illness which belongs to the arenarvirus family of viruses, which also includes
the Ebola-like Marburg
virus.
It was first identified in 1969 in the north Nigerian town
of the same name.
The virus, which is endemic in rodents in west Africa, is
transmitted to humans by contact with food or household items contaminated with
the animals' faeces and urine.
Person-to-person contact is also possible through bodily
fluids, particularly in hospitals when adequate infection control measures are
not taken.
People with Lassa fever do not display symptoms in 80
percent of cases but it can cause serious symptoms and death in the remainder.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that
the number of Lassa fever infections in west Africa every year is between
100,000 to 300,000, with about 5,000 deaths.
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