Daily Independent (Lagos)
28 March 2009
interview
Dr. Olayinka Ogunleye is a Consultant Physician at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja. He prescribed environmental as well as personal hygienic therapy as a way of keeping Lassa fever at bay, in this interview with Snr Correspondent, Emma Maduabuchi. Excerpts:
What is Lassa fever?
Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever (a medical condition in which there is severe loss of blood from inside a person's body), what does that mean? I mean that it is caused by a virus, and of course virus are of different categories, but talking of Lassa fever particularly, is in the class of diseases we call viral haemorrhagic fever. It is caused by an RNA virus, which belongs to the family that is described as Arenaviridae.
Why is Lassa fever regarded as a deadly disease?
Lassa fever is a deadly disease; there is no doubt about that. But why is it being regarded as a deadly disease? If I may use medical terminology, the causality and morbidity associated with Lassa fever is quite high. What does that mean? Lassa fever can kill quite rapidly. That is one of the reasons. Secondly, is the fact that it can mimic several other common diseases, and as a result of that, you might not be successful enough if you don't have a high index of suspicion, as a caregiver. That is what we advocate; people should think about Lassa fever when they see certain symptoms that may mimic other diseases like malaria, like typhoid and sicknesses like that, especially in areas where Lassa fever is endemic; where it occurs commonly.
What are the symptoms you see to conclude that one has Lassa fever?
Let me start by saying that in the majority of people infected with Lassa fever, it may pass unnoticed. In other words, it may be asymptomatic, and that is even in the majority of people, almost about 80 per cent of the people that have contact with the virus may manifest no symptoms; no complains whatsoever. But in the other category, the 20 per cent or thereabouts that will have a complaint, they usually start with fever. The fever starts gradually and then begins to increase like that, and then of course they complain of generalised body weakness. You will agree with me that person who have feeling of being unwell; who is having fever; and who has body weakness, would probably start thinking of other things as well. That is why I said earlier that it is a dangerous disease because some other diseases not as deadly as Lassa fever will also present the same symptoms at the onset.
What happens after that?
The individual will complain of headache, sore throat and muscle pains, and then chest pain and the feeling of nausea, like you want to throw up. Later on diarrhoea could develop and cough also.
Like stooling?
Yes, that is passage of watery stool; it can also develop and then the individual starts having abdominal pains as well. Of course, you know if these things are not recognised early enough, then it can progress to the later stages. And what are the things that will occur in the later stages? The individual could have swelling of the face and will start accumulating fluid in the lungs, and then that will bring about problem with breathing. The person will not be able to breathe very well. And subsequently, what follows is bleeding from practically every opening in the body-from the mouth, from the nose, from the ear, and even from the rectum. So, the individual can start bleeding from all these openings, all the outlets. That is why we call it haemorrhagic fever. Haemorrhic is blood loss, and so virile haemorrhagic fever. But you should know that other things could cause haemorrhagic fever; yellow fever can cause it.
Does it really manifest different symptoms?
Yes, and then the individual can now go into a state of shock. How do you know when an individual is in a state of shock? His blood pressure becomes so low you might not even be able to record it. The fellow might end up losing consciousness, going into coma and consequently death. So, those are the scenarios the symptoms do follow when an individual is infected.
What else do we need to know about Lassa fever?
One other important thing we need to know about Lassa fever is that it is a zoonotic infection, and they are diseases that human beings get from animals. So, Lassa fever is a form of zoonotic infection, and it has been proved that a particular type of rat causes it. The rat is called multimammate rat. The class in which this rat belongs is called the mastomy class of rats. But what is important is to know that it is a black rat.
In what areas can this rat be found?
It is commonly found in very dirty and overcrowded communities. So, one of the predisposing factors should be development, and the cause of the spread is poor environmental condition, poor environmental hygiene and then overcrowding. These are very important, and if you look at the areas where we have outbreak of Lassa fever, what would be clearly locatable in that environment is poor hygiene, dirty environment and overcrowding. Like seeing 10 people living and sleeping in one small room, and you seeing very small communities, where legions of human beings live. This encourages the breeding of the rats. Of course, the rat is infected, it carries the disease; it doesn't do them any harm, and they spread their excreta, their urine. Especially when this gets in contact with what they eat and drink, when they keep their foodstuff open in very dirty environment, the rats come around. They want to eat as well and they infect it with their excreta and urine.
Is there any vaccine against Lassa fever?
At the moment no, there is no vaccination. Of course, when you talk about vaccination, you are talking of preventive measures. There is no vaccination, but we have drugs to treat it if it is detected early. Once an individual suffering from Lassa fever enters the late stages, there is hardly anything you can do. But talking about vaccination, there is no vaccine yet against Lassa fever. Of course, we have vaccine against other virile diseases, but non yet against Lassa fever.
What could be done in terms of prevention?
What we can do in this mode actually is to avoid overcrowding, that's number one. Number two of course is to keep very hygienic environment, as much as possible, and of course personal hygiene. Then do a lot of control of rodents. Then of course, if you have someone that is infected, you do what we call barrier nursing that is to nurse the individual in an isolated environment.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
