Epidemiology and control of Lassa fever.

Abstract

The history of recognized human arenavirus infection in Africa began in 1969 with the mysterious death of two medical missionaries and the near-fatal illness of a third (Frame et al. 1970). An arenavirus was isolated from two of these patients and given the name of Lassa virus after the town of Lassa, Nigeria, where the disease, known as Lassa fever, occurred (Buckley et al. 1970). An earlier description of a febrile syndrome in Sierra Leone was, in retrospect, very likely to have been the first account of Lassa fever; however, no etiologic agent was sought (Rose 1956, 1957).