lassa fever awareness

1. BY
ILIYA DANIEL MAIGWA
DEPARTMENT: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
MATRICULATION NO.: FUK/SCI/12B/BIO/1045
7/29/2016 1
F. U.K
EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
7/29/2016 2LASSA FEVER KILLS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. TRANSMISSION
3. ETIOLOGY
4. DISTRIBUTION/EPIDEMIOLOGY
5. SYMPTOMS
6. DIAGNOSIS
7. PREVENTIONS
8. TREATMENT
9. RECOMMENDATIONS
10.CONCLUSION
11.REFERENCES

3. LASSA FEVER KILLS
INTRODUCTION.
7/29/2016 3
Lassa fever is a an acute viral haemorrhagic illness
that occurs in West Africa.
The illness was discovered in 1969 when two
missionary nurses died in Lassa town of Maiduguri
in Nigeria.
The virus is named after the town in which the first
cases occurred. (Frame J,1992).

4. INTRODUCTION.
7/29/2016 4
 Lassa fever is cause by Lassa virus.
 It belongs to the member of the virus family
Arenaviridae.
 Lassa virus is zoonotic meaning humans become infected
from contact with infected animals, transmission involves
the reservoir host, (Mastomys natalensis). (WHO, 2016).
LASSA FEVER KILLS

5. TRANSMISSION
7/29/2016 5LASSA FEVER KILLS
According to (WHO, 2016). Lassa virus is transmitted to
human through :-
1. Contact with food or house hold items contaminated
with infected rodent urine and faeces.
2. Person-to-person transmission may occur after exposure
to blood, tissue, secretions, or excretions of individual
infected with Lassa virus.

6. TRANSMISSION
7/29/2016 6LASSA FEVER KILLS
3.Transplacental i.e. mother to child
infection
4.Sexual transmission
5. Aerosol or airborne transmission may
occur during cleaning activities, such as
sweeping.
6.Laboratory transmission can also occur.

7. ETIOLOGY.
7/29/2016 7LASSA FEVER KILLS
• Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus, a member of the family
Arenaviridae.
• It is an enveloped, single-stranded, bi-segmented RNA virus.
• The virions exhibit Pleomorphic morphology when examined by
electron microscope.
• The surface of the virion envelope is studded with glycoprotein
projections. (Speir et al., 1970).

8. LASSA VIRUS.
7/29/2016 8
LASSA FEVER KILLS (Biofemgroup, 2016)
KEYS
G1- Glycoprotein 1
G2- Glycoprotein 2
S - Small
L - Large

9. Distribution/Epidemiology
7/29/2016 9LASSA FEVER KILLS
Lassa fever is distributed in some West African
countries such as Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin,
Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Mali and Togo.
 It is estimated that (300,000 – 500,000) persons get
infected and approximately 5,000 dies every year in
West Africa. (WHO, 2016).
The behavior, ecology and biology of the
reservoir host(Mastomys natalensis) is of great
Epidemiological effect.

10. 7/29/2016 10
Distribution of Lassa Fever in West Africa
(CDC 2014)

11. symptoms of lassa fever
7/29/2016 11LASSA FEVER KILLS (Biofemgroup, 2016)
The role of the
Sensorineural Hearing Loss

12. DIAGNOSIS
7/29/2016 12LASSA FEVER KILLS
Lassa virus infections can only be diagnosed definitively in the
laboratory (WHO, 2016). using the following tests :-
I. Antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
II. Antigen detection tests.
III. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-
PCR) assay
IV. Virus isolation by cell culture.

13. SANDY-APPEARING GRANULES OF
LASSA VIRUS
7/29/2016 13LASSA FEVER KILLS
("Arena" is the Latin root meaning sand)Figure Virus isolation by cell culture (Wikipedia, 2016)

14. PREVENTION
7/29/2016 14LASSA FEVER KILLS
1.Village – based programs for rodent control and
avoidance
2. Safe food storage
3. Wet down surface before sweeping
4. Hospital training programs to avoid nosocomial spread:
nursing manual.
Prevention is the best vaccination against Lassa virus.
This is because vaccination has not yet been discovered
(CDC, 2014).

15. TREATMENT
7/29/2016 15LASSA FEVER KILLS
. Where prevention is too late, the antiviral
drugs name Ribavirin can effectively be use
to treatment Lassa fever.(WHO, 2015)

16. RECOMMENDATIONS
7/29/2016 16LASSA FEVER KILLS
 Awareness (campaigns) and advocacy on clean and safe
environment to promote prevention especially within the endemic
areas are necessary.
 Abrogation of practices that might enhance contact with the
Lassa virus should be encouraged.
 Serviceable diagnostic and treatment centers for Lassa fever
within the West African sub-region and beyond should be set up
to enhance prompt therapy and containment of the illness.

17. CONCLUSION
7/29/2016 17LASSA FEVER KILLS
Haven seen what Lassa virus is, I will like to conclude by
encouraging you to :-
1. Promotes good “community hygiene” which in turns will
discourage rodents from entering homes.
2. Store grains and other foodstuffs in rodent-proof containers
3. Employ biological control measures to reduced rat e.g using
cats.
4. In health care setting, the interest of patient should be taken
above all, but specimen from suspected lassa patient be
considered dangerous.

18. REFERENCES
7/29/2016 18LASSA FEVER KILLS
Biofemgroup.(2016).http://www.bellanaija.com/wp-content/uploads/Biofem-group
Lassa-Fever.jpg
Center For Disease Control (2014). Update on Lassa Fever distribution map
http://www.CDC.int/media factsheets/fs223/en
Frame. J, (1992). The story of Lassa fever. Part I: Discovering the disease. New York
State Journal of Medicine. 5: 199-202.
Ryan Cordell (2014)The Molecular Biology & General Background of the Lassa
Virus.1-22
Speir R, Wood O, Liebhaber H, (1970). Lassa fever, a new virus disease of man from
West Africa. IV. Electron microscopy of Vero cell cultures infected with Lassa
virus. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 19:4-692.
Wikipedia (2016). Lassa Fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassa fever.
World Health Organization. (WHO 2015). Update on Lassa fever in West Africa.
Weekly Epidemiology Record. 10:80-86.
World Health Organization. (2016). Update on Lassa fever fact sheet.
http://www.who.int/media centre/factsheets/fs179/en/

19. b THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
7/29/2016 19LASSA FEVER KILLS
V
The
End