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afrol.com, 30 August - UN peacekeeping forces in Sierra Leone have reported the outbreak of the deadly Lassa Fever in the Daru area. Daru is a village 20 km northeast of Kenema, close to the Liberian border. Earlier, three cases of Lassa Fever have been reported in the nearby villages of Segbwema, Tongo Fields and Panguma. Col. Surendram Singh, Chief Medical Officer of the UNAMSIL informed at a press conference that Lassa Fever is unfortunately widely prevalent in the eastern province of Sierra Leone. After a careful study of this area, we have realised that the whole of the eastern province is affected and it is quite evident that there is a sudden upsurge of the incident of this disease among the civilian population, Singh stated. Lassa Fever is potentially a deadly disease. It is an acute viral illness, normally of one to four weeks duration caused by the Lassa virus. The disease was only first described in the 1950s. Consequences of the disease range widely in severity, from infections without symptoms nor illness to extremely severe illness which may have a fatal outcome. Approximately 15% of hospitalized patients die. The disease is more severe in pregnancy, and fetal loss occurs in greater than 80% of cases. The onset of the Lassa Fever disease is gradual, with fever, malaise, headache, cough, vomiting, diarrhoea, and chest and abdominal pain. The fever may be either constant or intermittent with spikes. Inflammation of the throat and eyes is commonly observed. Hair loss and loss of coordination may occur in convalescence. In addition, deafness occurs in 25% of patients, with only half recovering some function after one to three months. Immunity to reinfection occurs following infection. Specific treatment with the anti-viral drug, ribavirin may be effective if given within the first six days of illness. It is transmitted to humans from wild rats, and occurs in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and regions of Nigeria. Since January, 2000, there have been 373 notified cases of Lassa Fever treated in the Kenema Lassa Fever Treatment Centre, which is being run by the Merlins. It can be compared with the last year's figure because since January 1999 till date, the total number of Lassa Fever cases is 500, out of which 373 is the number since January to date. Keeping this in view and coupled with UNAMSIL troops being deployed in that province, we cannot take the risk and we have to insulate our troops against contacting the disease, Singh said. The last big outbreak of Lassa Fever in Sierra Leone was from January 1996 to April 1997. A total of 823 cases, including 153 deaths (18.6%), were reported. So far, there have been reported two cases of Lassa Fever from the UNAMSIL troops who were located in Daru and these have been treated. We have taken all precautionary measures to avoid the contact of this dreaded disease, Singh informed. Basically, we have conducted an effective massive campaign on early detection and surveillance of the affected contacts. - Medical officers from our UNAMSIL hospital have been placed there for another 4-weeks to further strengthen the prevention campaign. Although the progress is satisfactory, we are aware that there will be few exceptional cases. Sources: UNAMSIL and WHO
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