A man who returned to New Jersey after a visit to Liberia has died from Lassa fever, a viral disease with similar symptoms to Ebola. Here are five things to know about the case and the disease itself.
1. A man flew to the United States from Liberia and landed May 17. He was screened for illnesses at the airport but he did not have a fever at that time. However, on May 18, he went to a hospital in New Jersey with a sore throat, fever and tiredness, but was sent home. He returned to the same hospital May 21 with worse symptoms and was transferred to a second hospital that was prepared to treat Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic diseases. After an Ebola test returned negative and a Lassa fever test was positive, the patient died May 25.
2. Lassa fever is common in West Africa and infects anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 people annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In about 20 percent of infected people, they develop hemorrhaging, among other major symptoms, and death could occur within two weeks from symptom onset. About 15 to 20 percent of hospitalized Lassa fever patients die from it, but overall just 1 percent of all Lassa virus infections lead to death — a much lower death rate than Ebola, which has about a 70 percent facility rate.
3. Officials believe the risk of this disease spreading to the public is low. However, the CDC is working with public health officials to find people who had close contact with the man and they will be monitored for 21 days for symptoms.
4. Possibly the real question from this case is how the man slipped through the cracks of the monitoring program put in place due to the Ebola outbreak. According to the New York Times, it was unclear if the first hospital the man visited knew he had been assigned for monitoring by the local health department and if the health department knew the man visited a hospital.
5. A team from the CDC arrived in New Jersey and is helping the hospitals where the man visited and working to identify if any healthcare workers should be monitored for Lassa fever, according to the New York Times.