A terrifying viral illness that causes ocular haemorrhage, akin to Ebola, has claimed the life of an Iowa person.
According to health officials, the patient brought Lassa fever, an uncommon illness in the United States, back to the country from West Africa earlier this month.
The person was not sick while travelling, meaning the risk to fellow airline passengers is ‘extremely low,’ officials with the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Patients are not thought to be contagious before symptoms appear, and casual contact does not spread the virus.
The University of Iowa Health Care Medical Centre in Iowa City isolated the patient, who has not been publicly identified.
Testing conducted by the Nebraska Laboratory Response Network on Monday showed that Lassa fever was the cause of the patient’s death.
The Iowa case, if verified, would be the ninth recorded instance of Lassa fever in visitors returning to the United States from regions where the illness has been prevalent since 1969.
The CDC is now assisting Iowa health officials to identify people who had been in contact with the patient after symptoms began. Those identified as being in close contact will be monitored for three weeks.
Lassa fever, which is caused by the Lassa virus, is a relatively common disease in West Africa, with between 100,000 and 300,000 cases diagnosed every year with around 5,000 deaths.
Symptoms are typically mild and include fever, fatigue, and headache, but some people may develop vomiting, difficulty breathing, facial swelling, and pain in the back, chest, or stomach.
The patient’s infection source is being investigated by state and local health officials.
It’s believed they had been in contact with rodents in West Africa.
Rodents carry the virus, which people can get by coming into contact with the urine or faeces of infected animals.
In rare cases, it can be transmitted among people through direct contact with a sick person’s blood or bodily fluids, through mucous membranes, or through sexual contact.
Lassa fever was named after a Nigerian town where Western-trained doctors first noted it in 1969.
Scientists first identified the virus causing Lassa fever in 1969. It belongs to the Arenaviridae family.
According to the World Health Organisation, 80 per cent of people who get infected won’t develop any symptoms. But the virus has a case fatality rate of around 1 percent.
According to the WHO, Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and several other west coast African nations, such as Guinea and Liberia.
Someone travelled from West Africa to the United States and brought it in. How wonderful, not! Nor did they specify who brought it in, but clearly they were unchecked for any diseases before they came in, and it’s very scary that American citizens are forced to be exposed to dozens of new diseases because of uncontrolled, unchecked open border policies.
It seems that not one person is cleared, checked, or vetted.
Thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the United States will now endure years of illness and misery as a result of new migrants and those who are already in the country flying back and forth to their home countries.
“Baaa blind sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir, yes sir and I’m 6 jabs full. One for humanity, one for that day and four because I’ll always do whatever they say.”
Unfortunately, checking someone who doesn’t exhibit any symptoms is rather challenging. Lassa fever takes one to three weeks to incubate, and its initial symptoms—such as fever, headaches, muscular soreness, and an overall feeling of unwellness—often mimic those of the flu.
Roughly 80 percent of cases are mild and go unrecognised, but the disease can be severe and even fatal in about 1 percent of those infected.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 