A patient who died from the rare rat-born Lassa fever in the UK last week was a newborn baby
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed last Friday that an individual with the disease had died in Bedfordshire and that two other people had become infected.
It has now been confirmed that it was an infant, in an email sent to staff at Luton and Dunstable Hospital by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Hundreds of people at the hospital were reportedly told to isolate after being identified as potential contacts of the Ebola-like illness.
According to health officials, Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness caused by the Lassa virus.
It spreads through food that has been contaminated by the urine or faeces of infected multimammate rats, as well as human bodily fluid.
Infection can also occur if a person inhales particles containing the Lassa virus - such as from an infected person coughing or sneezing.
The multimammate rat is commonly found in Africa and the illness is endemic in numerous countries in western parts of the continent.
It has not been found in Ireland at this point, however, the HPSC has warned that it could be brought into the country by an infected passenger.
A statement on its website says: "It is possible that Lassa virus could be imported into Ireland in a traveller returning from an affected country.
“While the virus is primarily spread by contact with the urine and faeces of the multimammate rat, the virus can be spread through inhalation of the virus and by person to person spread via infected blood and body fluids."
According to the HPSC, it can take between six to 21 days for symptoms to show after infections has occurred.
A post on its website explains: "Symptoms appear gradually and include fever, general weakness, tiredness, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough and stomach pain.
"Severe cases may have facial swelling, fluid in lungs, bleeding from multiple sites and low blood pressure. Shock, seizures, shaking, confusion and coma may occur in later stages.
"Elderly people and those with weakened immune systems e.g. people living with cancer, may have more severe symptoms, but full recovery is usual.”
The health officials also say the most common complication of this disease is deafness, which is experienced by 33% of people who have become infected in the past.
As well as this, temporary hair loss has been seen in patients and an unusual way of walking during recovery.
Despite the grim effects of Lassa fever, the case fatality rate is just 1%, but of those who require hospital care, around 15-20% die.
“The death rates are particularly high in women in the third trimester of pregnancy and in foetuses of infected mothers, 95% of whom die before birth,” the HPSC says.
