Air-clinic writing contest: tears of blood- the lassa fever story

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Lassa fever is known to be endemic to a number of West African countries like Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria but probably exists in other West African cpuntries as well. There are estimated to be between 100,000 and 300,000 cases of lassa fever per year and approximately 5,000 deaths due to the disease. Source

Definition
Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrphagic disease carried by multimammate rat(mastomys natalensis) that often manifest in6-21days after in contact with it.

Transmission
It is transmitted through contact with food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or faces. Person to person infections and laboratory transmission also occur.

Symptoms
The symptoms includes: fever, general weakness, malaise, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough, adnominal pain, facial swelling, fluid in the lyng cavity etc.

Treatment
The antiviral drug ribavirin seems to be an effective treatment for lassa fever if given early on in the course of clinical illness.

Preventions
Promoting good hygiene
Health care staffs should always apply standard infection prevention and control precautios when carrying fpr patients.
Samples taken from humans and animals for investigation of lassa virus infectipn should be handled by trained staff and processed in suitably equipped laboratories under maximum biological containment conditions source

Solutions
Since the treatment of lassa fever is very expensive and might not be affordable by everyone, prevention is the best solution and the preventive measures given above should be taken seriously and in the case of occurence by any means the suspected patients should visit the hospital early enough since if not reported eraly might result in death despite any treatment given. Also proactive measures should be taken to ensure that hospitals especially in the area where the diseases is endemic is equipped wirh the facilities needed to treat the patient in the event of occurrence and prevent transmission to the health care staff. Also more awareness should be created concerning the disease, causes, transmission, symptons and preventive measures especially to the rural area of the affected countries.

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