SWEDEN: IMPORTED LASSA FEVER

LASSA FEVER, IMPORTED - SWEDEN: (LINKOPING) ex WEST AFRICA
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A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org/>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org/>
Date: Tue 8 Mar 2011
Source: The Local (Swedish News in English) [edited]
<http://www.thelocal.se/32470/20110308/>

A Swedish woman is being treated at the intensive care unit of
Linkoping University Hospital in eastern Sweden after being diagnosed
with the deadly disease Lassa fever. The woman was infected in West
Africa, where she had been working for a humanitarian aid
organization. She is the 1st patient ever to be treated for Lassa
fever in Sweden.
The woman's condition is stable, but she will remain isolated for
another few weeks, according to infectious disease specialist Britt
Akerlind. The woman, who is in her 30s, was flown home on a medical
transport flight and arrived in Sweden on Monday [7 Mar 2011] morning.
"She tested positive for the disease in Africa. We have since
conducted some tests here, but the results are not in yet. We are
treating this as a serious illness," Akerlind told news agency TT.
The symptoms of Lassa fever, which infects between 300 000 and 500
000 people annually, include a high temperature and internal
haemorrhaging, but the majority of those that contract the disease
make a full recovery. "Only about one per cent of those infected
become seriously ill, and it is impossible to know in advance who will
be affected worse than others," Akerlind told TT.
Rodents are often carriers of Lassa fever, and the disease is spread
through contact with their faeces. Between humans, the disease is
passed through the exchange of bodily fluids. How the Swedish woman
caught the disease is unknown.
According to Akerlind there is no risk that Lassa fever, which claims
around 5000 lives annually, will spread in Sweden.