Lassa Virus, Mali | CDC EID

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Volume 16, Number 7–July 2010
Dispatch
Detection of Lassa Virus, Mali
David Safronetz, Job E. Lopez, Nafomon Sogoba, Sékou F. Traore', Sandra J. Raffel, Elizabeth R. Fischer, Hideki Ebihara, Luis Branco, Robert F. Garry, Tom G. Schwan, and Heinz Feldmann
Author affiliations: National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA (D. Safronetz, J.E. Lopez, S.J. Raffel, E.R. Fischer, H. Ebihara, T.G. Schwan, H. Feldmann); University of Bamako, Bamako, Mali (N. Sogoba, S.F. Traore'); Tulane School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (L. Branco, R.F. Garry); and Autoimmune Technologies LLC, New Orleans (L. Branco)

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Abstract
To determine whether Lassa virus was circulating in southern Mali, we tested samples from small mammals from 3 villages, including Soromba, where in 2009 a British citizen probably contracted a lethal Lassa virus infection. We report the isolation and genetic characterization of Lassa virus from an area previously unknown for Lassa fever.
Lassa fever is an acute viral infection associated with a wide spectrum of disease manifestations, which range from mild to hemorrhagic fever characterized by multiorgan failure (1). The etiologic agent of Lassa fever is Lassa virus (LASV, family Arenaviridae, genus Arenavirus), which is maintained in its natural rodent reservoir, the multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) (1–3). Although M. natalensis rats are ubiquitous in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, infected rodents have only been reported in West African countries, most commonly Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Guinea (3–5). Consequently, cases of Lassa fever mainly occur in regions in which the virus is endemic, consisting of those 3 countries and Liberia, with an annual incidence ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 cases and ≈5,000 deaths (6). Serologic evidence of LASV infections has also been reported from other West and Central African countries (5,7–9). Additionally, LASV has been introduced into Europe and North America several times, making Lassa fever one of the most prominent imported exotic viral hemorrhagic fevers, which strongly affects public health systems (9).

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Lassa Virus, Mali | CDC EID

Suggested Citation for this Article
Safronetz D, Lopez JE, Sogoba N, Traore' SF, Raffel SJ, Fischer ER, et al. Detection of Lassa virus, Mali. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Jul [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/7/1123.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1607.100146