While the period of covid-19 is still on everyone’s minds, the whole world is now “fearful”. Any epidemicthe world’s onset of illness is subject to numerous analyzes and observations, in order to ensure that a possible pandemic is quickly brought under control.
In France, it’s the topic of the moment. Indeed, researchers confirmed that, on May 2, a very first case of Lassa fever had been detected in Île-de-France. The patient, a soldier returning from a stay abroad, was quickly taken care of within theBégin hospital, in Saint-Mandé, in Val-de-Marne. Particularly fatal, can this disease spread?
A soldier, treated for a case of Lassa fever
Endemic, this fever is called hemorrhagic. That is, it can cause heavy bleeding which can lead to death. Discovered at the end of the 1960s in Nigeria, this disease is now endemic in West Africa, or every year, between 100 and 300,000 cases are officially recorded, for approximately 5 to 6,000 deaths.. An extremely rare disease in Europe.
In fact, on average, only one case is detected every two years. Symptoms generally only appear one to three weeks after infection. Fever, nausea, vomiting or even fatigue and muscle pain, these are quite “classics” and do not really encourage vigilance. In all cases, the soldier was taken care of and his journey was studied, so that contact cases were quickly tested.
No vaccine exists to date
A disease which is transmitted either by blood contact or by saliva contact, but which, unlike covid-19 for example or the flu, is not transmitted by air. This therefore makes it possible to considerably limit the risks of epidemics, even if they are not zero. No vaccine currently exists to treat the disease. However, a drug exists to treat patients and limit the risk of death. This is ribavirin.
