Death from Lassa fever reported in Iowa

An Iowa resident who returned to the United States from travel to West Africa died Monday of a rare hemorrhagic fever, health officials said. 

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the death of a “middle-aged eastern Iowa resident” was confirmed from Lassa fever. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working to confirm the diagnosis.  

Lassa fever is a viral disease common in West Africa, but rarely seen in the United States. In West Africa, the Lassa virus is carried by rodents and spread to humans through contact with the urine or droppings of infected rodents.

Lassa fever is found in countries including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria. In those countries, the virus causes several hundred thousand infections and about 5,000 deaths a year, CDC said.  

There have been only eight travel-associated cases of Lassa fever in the U.S. in the past 55 years. Approximately 80 percent of those that contract Lassa fever have mild or no symptoms at all. In people with severe illness, symptoms can include bleeding, vomiting, difficulty breathing and shock, according to the CDC. 

The virus is not spread through casual contact such as hugging, shaking hands or through the air, and patients are not believed to be infectious before symptoms begin. According to CDC, the patient was not sick while traveling so the risk to fellow airline passengers is “extremely low.” 

The virus can be transmitted from person to person in rare cases through direct contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids, through mucous membranes, or through sexual contact. 

Iowa HHS said it is working closely with the University of Iowa Health Care, where the individual was receiving care, the CDC and local public health partners to identify anyone who may have been in close contact with the patient, out of an abundance of caution, for monitoring.  

“This is a difficult time for the family of this individual and I want to express our deepest condolences,” Robert Kruse, State Medical Director of the Iowa HHS said in a statement. “I want to assure Iowans that the risk of transmission is incredibly low in our state. We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing the necessary public health protocols.”