Eastern region is the home of Lassa fever in West Africa
The vice president of Metabiota project has described the eastern province of the Republic of Sierra Leone as a Lassa belt zone, the description came during a two week intensive training workshop which commenced in Kenema on lassa fever. The workshop which started 28th October at the Luawa Resort Hotel, Whaman Abu Road, Kenema attracted ten foreign medical practitioners from Nigeria and the Lassa fever team of the Kenema government hospital. (Photo: Aniru Sahib Sahib Conteh. Aniru Conteh was a Sierra Leonean physician and expert on the clinical treatment of Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa caused by the Lassa virus)
In an opening ceremony of the workshop the Kenema district medical officer Rev. Dr. Thomas Samba described the Lassa fever workshop to be timely and more delighted as he reflected on the fact that some parts of Nigeria experienced a sizable passion of Lassa fever years back in the sub-region.
“Eastern region is a Lassa belt zone says”Joseph Fair
Dr. Samba expressed gratitude on behalf of the ministry of health and sanitation for collaborating and enhancing such training on disease that has threatened and killed many people in the part of eastern region. He commended the Lassa fever team of the Kenema government hospital in collaboration with the Tulane University research team in the fight against Lassa fever spread in the east and Sierra Leone as a whole.
Joseph Fair the vice president of the Metabiota project explained that Lassa fever was first discovered in Nigeria in 1959, but he further stressed that the spread of the disease was sporadic and very difficult to diagnose because it has similar syndrome to a Malaria infection.
Giving a brief background of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone, he described the eastern region as a Lassa belt zone in West Africa with the highest incident and prevalence and therefore described the situation to be hyperdemic than all other countries in the sub-region, that is even more the reason the eastern region Kenema government hospital is now the headquarter for Lassa disease control in the region. He further stressed that the severity became more eminent and dreadful after the death of Dr. Aniru Conteh (in photo) in the struggle against Lassa fever in this part of the country.
Joseph Fair described the content of the workshop to be very significant and unique because the Sierra Leone Lassa experts of the Kenema government are designated to provide lectures on topics due to the long term and experience in preventing and curing of Lassa cases in the eastern part of Sierra Leone.
Putting premium of the content of the training, Joseph Fair categorized the 14 days training into phases which includes lectures, laboratory, and clinical. He further added that the workshop by design will help the Nigerian medical practitioners to learn and adopt lessons learnt in the training which impact in their own country.
Dr. Jan Paul Gonzalez, senior adviser for Emerging Diseases and Bio Security described the spread of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone as unique because the parting of spread is more seasonal and more eminent in the dry season when cassava farms are burnt; he stated that, that is the period when rodents are more active and he pointed out these are the popular species for the viral spread.
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Austin Demby
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Important subject but a few errors and a tad bit of misinformation. Just a note of clarification. Lassa fever was first described in a village called Lassa in the Jos plateau region of northern Nigeria, hence the name Lassa fever. The disease was as first described in Sierra Leone in 1976 during an outbreak in the Panguma region in eastern Sierra Leone. Between 1976 and late 1990s the US Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Ministry of Health had a major program in Sierra Leone based in Segbwema, Panguma, and Kenema. Most of the current knowledge including diagnosis, treatment, care, and prevention of Lassa fever was developed during that 20 year period. A vaccine is a distinct possibility because the most immunogenic portion of the viral genome was identified a while back. It is a distinct shame that people are still dying from this preventable disease.
Note: For transparency, I was the CDC director of the Lassa fever Project in Sierra Leone in the late 80s and early 90s
5th November 2013