Lassa Fever Precautions

Lassa fever or Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first discovered in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State. Lassa fever is a member of the Arenaviridae virus family. Similar to Ebola, clinical cases of the disease had been known for over a decade, but had not been connected with a viral pathogen.

Lassa infects people in West Africa. It results in 300,000 to 500,000 cases annually and causes about 5,000 deaths each year. Outbreaks of the disease have been observed in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Central African Republic. The primary animal host of the Lassa virus is the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), popularly known as Rat, an animal found in most of West Africa.

The virus is probably transmitted by contact with the feces or urine of Rats accessing grain stores in residences.

Precautions:

1.     Practice Hand Washing Hygiene: Wash your hands whenever you return home, also wash properly your fruits (Apple, Pine-Apple, Watermelon, etc.) with salt and warm water before eating or refrigerating. 

2.     Clean or Wash Properly the top of canned drinks or if possible use a straw.

3.     Market Food Stuffs: Garri: - don't taste dry garri by chewing them for starch on the market stands. The problem is that most of our garri sellers in the market buy their garri from bush markets. These garri are often fried half dry and are subsequently dried on polythene sheets on the tarred roads or compounds in the villages. The rats dive in at will, to feed their hungry bellies and in the process defecate and urinate on the garri, which dry up with it. If used for Eba, the virus may die cos of the hot water used. But if soaked, the virus is directly ushered in. 

4.     Fumigate: if you have rats in your house or compound! Which is obviously common in Nigeria, please endeavor to fumigate your surroundings and keep your family safe.

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www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassa_fever