The Ministry of Health announced Thursday that a hospitalized patient, a soldier returned from abroad, had been confirmed as suffering from Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever whose virus is endemic in certain African countries.
The patient is hospitalized in Ile-de-France and “his state of health does not cause concern,” the ministry said in a press release published Thursday evening. “A thorough epidemiological investigation is underway to determine the people who may have been in risky contact with the patient.”
Contact persons at risk contacted by health authorities
The virus can be transmitted from person to person “by direct contact with the blood, urine, excrement or other organic secretions of an infected person. The risk of occurrence of secondary cases is therefore limited to people who have had direct contact with the biological fluids of the patient, in particular the health personnel who took care of him”, recalls the ministry.
Contact persons at risk “were contacted by the health authorities”, he added. You must “monitor the appearance of symptoms for 21 days after the last risky contact” and “if symptoms appear, including fever, isolate yourself and contact a doctor”.
Lassa fever is a hemorrhagic fever, notifiable. The majority of cases are asymptomatic, but it can also cause fever, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, and headache, according to the Ministry of Health. The virus takes its name from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria, where it was first identified in 1969. It is endemic in some countries in Africa.