The Lassa fever outbreak in Africa: Correspondence

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the world, Nigeria is dealing with a massive outbreak of Lassa fever, an acute hemorrhagic disease caused by the Lassa virus, which belongs to the arenavirus family and spreads through the contamination of food and household items such as urine or feces of infected multimammate rats. Lassa fever is endemic in Africa and has been claimed to have afflicted over 2 million individuals. According to previous study, between 300,000 and 500,000 cases are detected each year, with 5000 deaths. Lassa virus has a relatively long incubation period ranging from 6 to 21 days, making it one of the most commonly exported viral hemorrhagic fevers to non-endemic nations. This feature piques international interest in the Lassa virus in terms of global health security. It is designated as a Biosafety Level 4 agent because of its high case fatality rate, the potential for easy dissemination via human-human contact, the severity of infectivity, lack of effective vaccinations and treatments, and spread by aerosol.