Transmission+-+Lassa+Fever

Lassa virus is transmitted zoonotically and between people.

Between outbreaks, it lives in the natal multimammate mouse (// Mastomys natalensis // ). This rodent is a vector for the disease and passes the virus to people through its excretions of urine and feces. People often encounter the excreta of the rodent when it enters the home or grain storage and when they move the grain and inadventently aerosolize the excreta. Between humans, the virus is transmitted through bodily fluids and through aerosol. It infects the body through the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Because this virus lives for some time outside of a host, it can be transmitted through the contact with surfaces a patient touches, directly or indirectly. When contracted nosocomially, the transmission is usually a result of poor nursing practices. Although nosocomial transmission is rarer when good practices are followed, working with the virus comes with occupational hazards. Dr. Conteh, the foremost expert in Sierra Leone on the fever died of a needlestick infection of lassa virus while drawing blood from a patient.



Sources http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000388 http://www.chppmeur.healthcare.hqusareur.army.mil/sites/usachppmeur/factsheets/DES-FS012%20Lassa%20Fever.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/4454959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassa_fever