Hosts Clinical diseases • Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) viruses cause
influenza-like febrile illness, but occasionally they may cause
meningitis, characteristically accompanied by large numbers of lymphocytes in the cerebrospinal fluid (as the name LCM suggests). • Lassa virus causes
Lassa fever. Lassa fever is endemic in west Africa. The virus was first isolated from Americans stationed in the village of Lassa, Nigeria. The virus can be transmitted person-to-person. • Subclinical diseases: Serological studies suggest that inapparent infections particularly among members of hunting tribes are common. • Clinical infections: Lassa fever is characterised by high fever, severe myalgia, coagulopathy, haemorrhagic skin rash, and occasional visceral haemorrhage as well as necrosis of liver and spleen. • Other Arenaviruses like Junin virus, Machupo virus cause haemorrhagic fevers. All of these diseases pose a great threat to public health in the regions where it is taking place. For example, when the Old World Lassa virus turns into Lassa fever, this usually results in a significant amount of mortality. Similarly the New World Junin virus causes Argentine hemorrhagic fever. This fever is a severe illness with hemorrhagic and neurological manifestations and a case fatality of fifteen to thirty percent. The disease originated near Lusaka,
Zambia and spread to
Johannesburg,
South Africa, after the first patient was transported to a hospital there. The results of genetic sequencing tests conducted by epidemiologists at
Columbia University in
New York City, USA, and at the Special Pathogens Branch of the
Centers for Disease Control in
Atlanta, USA, provided evidence that the causative agent of the disease is a virus from the family Arenaviridae, which ultimately resulted in the deaths of four out of the five infected in Zambia and South Africa during the outbreak which began in September 2008. Arenavirus has also pinpointed as the cause of death of three donor organ recipients in Australia who contracted the virus after receiving kidney and a liver donations from a single infected organ donor in late 2006. All three died in the first week of 2007.
WHO and its Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) partners continue to support the Ministries of Health of the two countries in various facets of the outbreak investigation, including laboratory diagnosis, investigations, active case finding and follow-up of contacts. == Treatments ==