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| Lassa virus
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
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but it is believed that human infections exist also in:
It is also the most common hemorrhagic fever that is exported beyond its endemic area to countries like the United States, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Japan and Israel.
The virus belongs to Arenaviridae family; it is an enveloped, single-stranded, bisegmented RNA virus. It has been determined that the virus is zoonotic (transmitted from animals), and that it spreads to man from rodents, multimammate rats ( Mastomys natalensis). This is probably the most common rodent in equatorial Africa, ubiquitous in human housholds and as a delicacy eaten by up to 90% of people in some areas. In these rats infection is in a persistent asymptomatic state that is well tolerated by the animals. The virus is shed in their excreta.
In fatal cases Lassa fever is characterized by impaired or delayed cellular immunity leading to fulminant viraemia.
The dissemination of the infection can be assessed by prevalence of antibodies to the virus in populations of:
Unlike other hemorrhagic fevers Lassa fever can be transmitted human-to-human. It can be contracted by an airborne route or with direct contact with infected human material: blood, urine, or semen.
The route of infection to humans is by respiratory tractIn humans the respiratory tract is the part of the anatomy that has to do with the process of respiration or breathing. The respiratory tract is divided into 3 segments: Upper Respiratory Tract: nose and nasal passages, paranasal sinuses, and throat or ph or by gastrointestinal tractFor the Physics term 'GUT', please refer to Grand unification theory The gastrointestinal or digestive tract also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal or the gut is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, dige when someone comes in contact with excrement of an infected rodent or eats some food contaminated with animal excrement. Inhalation of tiny particles of infective material (aerosol) is believed to be the most significant. It is also possible to acquire the infection through broken skinThis article is about skin in the biological sense. For other uses of skin see skin (computing) and skinhead. Regarding exposure of the skin to be seen by others, or prevention of this, see nudity, nudism, modesty, clothing. Fruits such as oranges also ha or mucous membraneThe mucous membranes (or mucosa are linings of ectodermic origin, covered in epithelium, that line various body cavities and internal organs. It is at several places continuous with skin: at the nostrils, the lips, the ears, the genitourinary area, and ths that are directly exposed to infective material. Another route of transmission is man-to-man transmission when someone comes in close contact with an disease-stricken person. The virus is excreted in semen for three months after infection, however it has not been established how frequently it may be transmitted through sexual contact.
Similarly healthcare personnel can contract the disease while caring for Lassa fever patients.
In 80% of cases the disease is inapparent but in the remaining 20% it takes a complicated course. It is estimated (no definitive data exist) that the virus is responsible for about 5000 deaths annually.
After an incubation periodIncubation period is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism and when symptoms and signs are first apparent. The period may be as short as minutes, to as long as thirty years in the case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A person ma of 6-21 days, an acute illness with multiorgan involvement develops. Nonspecific symptoms include feverFever also known as pyrexia is a medical symptom which describes an increase in temperature to levels which are above normal (37 degrees Celsius 98. 6 degrees Fahrenheit). An adaptive mechanism, fever is the body's reaction to pathogens; it attempts to ki, facial swelling, and muscle fatigue as well as conjunctivitisConjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctiva (the outermost layer of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelids), often due to infection. There are three common varieties of conjunctivitis, viral, allergic, and bacterial. Viral and bacterial con and mucosal bleeding. The other symptoms arising from the affected organs are:
Clinically Lassa fever infections are hard to distinguish from febrile illnesses such as malaria and other viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.
The virus is excreted in urine for three to nine weeks and in semen for three months.
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