Outbreak of Lassa Fever: 56 contacts being traced – GHS

According to the Ghana Health Service, 56 people are being tracked down in the aftermath of the Lassa Fever outbreak.

GHS said the contacts were identified after the country recorded two cases, one of which resulted in death.

According to the Service, it has deployed a team to track the disease from man-to-man transmission to health facilities.

Dr. Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, said, “What we are doing now is identifying the man-to-man transmission contacts. We are looking at the close associations of the first case and the health facility where the first case was handled. Those are the contacts that we are tracking and for now, we have been able to identify 56.”

The Ghana Health Service has confirmed two cases of Lassa fever in the country.

All two cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra region, a statement issued by the GHS said.

The first case according to the GHS was a forty-year-old trader who was unwell for two weeks and finally died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The second case was a contact of the fatal case is currently on admission but very stable, the GHS said.

Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus, a member of the arenavirus family of viruses.

Humans usually become infected with Lassa virus through exposure to food or household items contaminated with urine or faeces of infected Mastomys rats.