Updates, On Lassa Fever's Continued Spread, In West Africa...

We had last reported in 2016 on an elegant knockout approach -- at Oxford University -- to subduing Ebola. Lassa is a close cousin, though not quite as lethal as the Ebola virus. Still, it presents with high hemorrhagic fevers and not too infrequently, a spiral down and then. . . death. [In fact, a man who had traveled to Liberia last year -- returned to Iowa, and was diagnosed with Lassa. . . and even with the fine care, and facilities -- at the University of Iowa, ultimately succumbed to the virus.]

And so, building on that earlier Oxford work, the med school continues working on a protein-based Lassa vaccine candidate -- which is now in investigational trials, in Africa. We are hopeful that it will deliver high efficacy -- since the virus is known to be circulating in Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa. Here's the latest, from GAVI:

. . .Lassa fever kills thousands of people every year in West Africa, but many of those infections go undiagnosed until it’s too late.

With the Ebola-like haemorrhagic disease now emerging in hospitals from Iowa to Johannesburg and Beijing, it’s a problem that is pushing beyond West Africa’s borders.

A new study in Liberia, published by the Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that 11% of people admitted to hospital with fever who weren’t suspected to have Lassa fever, turned out to be infected.

The study authors argue this points to an urgent need for a clearer understanding of the symptomology and better detection and treatment. . . .

Among people admitted with fever with no clinical suspicion of Lassa. . . children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years old accounted for about 43% of confirmed cases, above. . . .

Now you know -- and, where is the USA [and USAID] on all of this? Damn.

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