LASSA FEVER,OTHERS AS DEADLY AS EBOLA FEVER

LASSA FEVER,OTHERS AS DEADLY AS EBOLA FEVER

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU,ALEXANDRA ZAVIS.

…………………..MARBURG,LASSA FEVER,YELLOW FEVER,DENGUE FEVER ARE LETHAL TOO

………………………W.H.O SAYS THAT 20,000 PEOPLE ARE EXPECTED TO DIE DUE TO THE CURRENT EBOLA SAGA

…………………….FRESH ATTACKS IN CENTRAL AFRICA

The Current outbreak of Ebola Virus around West Africa and even in Central and Equatorial Africa has been described as a tiny finger in huge dam if efforts are not made by medical authorities and researchers alike to devote more time on study , work and funding of how to combat hemorrhagic fevers.

In an exclusive interview with Paedia Express Multimedia in Lagos, Nigeria, The Medical Director of Our Friend Hospital ,Dr Tosin Isa Mohammed said that hemorrhagic fevers could only be contained and not stopped as there will be on and off period of attacks since they are from organic origins.

He explained that there were more of dangerous diseases like Ebola than was now been discussed in the public sphere as he  listed such ailments like Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever,

Lassa Fever, Rift Valley Fever, South American Hemorrhagic, African Hemorrhagic fevers.

He warned seriously that those thinking that Hemorrhagic Fevers will be wiped out over night should be ready for a heart break as they will go and come back depending on the level of our response.

According to the medical expert some of the dangerous diseases termed medically as Hemorrhagic Fever were either vector based through secondary hosts like Rats or through Mosquitoes when they use there proboscis to suck the blood of an infected victim

His words"A Disease only becomes very popular when it becomes very popular then it is characterized as an epidemic ,they all have different manifestations but are similar in that they have situations like bleeding, high fever ,multiple organ failure and high fatality rate"

He debunked claims that African scientists were been treated with double standards by the World Health Organizations over there research findings on diseases as eh asked them to step up there game in the field of consistency and effective provision of concise data at all times like the practice in Europe and America.

Dr Mohammed continues "in 1969,Lassa Fever was contacted by an American at a village in Plateau state called Lassa in Nigeria  and they started to work on it  with drugs and vaccines put in place for this ,Marburg disease was found in 1967 in East Africa ,domestic animals like Rats are usually the vector for this crisis"

"When diseases reach the stage of popularity on account of been epidemic  then there will be more funding  and attention paid to it"

He added that because of the present situation the World Health Organization has just disclosed that not less than  20,000 people were expected to die this year.

A suspected Ebola outbreak in Central Africa has been traced to a pregnant woman who butchered a slain bush animal that had been given to her husband, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The Health Ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Sunday that two samples taken from a remote village in the northwestern province of Equateur had tested positive for the deadly virus, but added that the infections were from a different strain than the one that has killed more than 1,400 people in four West African countries.

France, meanwhile, recommended that its nationals leave Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the outbreak there, and the national carrier Air France temporarily suspended flights to Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.

United Nations officials have urged airlines and other transport companies not to suspend service to Ebola-affected countries, saying it is hampering efforts to bring in much-needed supplies and humanitarian workers.

Air France will continue to fly to Guinea and Nigeria, saying airport screening procedures in those countries will ensure that people displaying symptoms of Ebola aren't allowed to board its flights.

In Nigeria, the government postponed the start of the school year until Oct. 13 to help prevent the spread of Ebola, local news reports said.

A total of 24 suspected Ebola cases were identified in Congo between July 28 and Aug. 18, including 13 people who died, the WHO said. Samples have been sent to laboratories in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, and the nearby nation of Gabon to confirm the presence of Ebola and verify the strain, the United Nations health agency said in a statement.

If confirmed, this would be the seventh Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the disease was first reported.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which is spread by contact with infected bodily fluids. The illness can jump from animals to humans through the handling or eating of infected carcasses.

The woman believed to have been the first person infected in the latest outbreak came from Ikanamongo village and died Aug. 11 of a then-unidentified hemorrhagic fever, the statement said. A doctor and two nurses who were exposed to the woman during surgery also developed symptoms and died, along with a hygienist and another person identified as a "ward boy."

Other deaths were recorded among relatives of the woman, people who were in contact with clinic staff and those who handled the bodies of the victims during funeral ceremonies, the  WHO said.

The Health Ministry has sent teams to the affected area to evaluate the situation. Individuals who came in contact with the victims are being traced, the WHO said.

So far, 80 people are being followed. None of them traveled to West Africa or were in contact with people from that region, the WHO said.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has taken a heavy toll on health workers.  More than 240 have been infected and at least 120 have died in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, according to WHO figures.

Authorities in Sierra Leone said Wednesday that a leading doctor had succumbed to Ebola. Dr. Sahr Rogers contracted the virus while working at a hospital in the eastern city of Kenema, the Associated Press reported. He was the third doctor in the country to die of Ebola.

A Senegalese epidemiologist, who was infected while deployed for the WHO in the eastern Sierra Leonean town of Kailahun, was flown to Germany overnight and was receiving care Wednesday at a Hamburg hospital. The WHO has temporarily withdrawn its remaining staff members from the town while it investigates how the infection happened.  

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had flown home via private charter an employee who had "low-risk exposure" to a health worker infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone.

The CDC employee, who was due to return to the United States, had worked in the same room as the infected person. The employee was not displaying any symptoms, the CDC said in a statement. But it is policy that staff members traveling long distances after contact with Ebola patients should use private travel methods during the 21-day incubation period.

The Public Health Agency of Canada announced that it was evacuating a three-member mobile laboratory team from Kailahun after people in their hotel complex were diagnosed with Ebola.

None of the Canadian team members had direct contact with those infected and they were not displaying signs of illness, the agency said in a statement. But they will remain in voluntary isolation and will be monitored during the incubation period, the statement said.

Lassa fever or Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria.^[1] Lassa fever is a member of the arenaviridae virus family. Similar to Ebola,^[2] clinical cases of the disease had been known for over a decade but had not been connected with a viral pathogen. The infection is endemic in West African countries, resulting in 300,000–500,000 cases annually, causing approximately 5,000 deaths.^] Outbreaks of the disease have been observed in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Central African Republic, but it is believed that human infections also exist in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Senegal. The primary animal host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Multimammate Mouse (Mastomys natalensis), an animal indigenous to most of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[4] The virus is probably transmitted by contact with the feces or urine of animals accessing grain stores in residences. Given its high rate of incidence, Lassa fever has become a major problem in the African region.