Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by a rodent-borne disease that is endemic to West Africa and was first identified in the town of Lassa in Nigeria in 1969 (in present day Borno State). Lassa fever is spread through contact with contaminated fluids and material (rat’s faeces, urine or saliva, inhaling dust) from an infected rat.
Once a person is ill with Lassa fever, they can pass it on to others should they come in contact with their body fluids. This has been documented in health facilities, particularly in hospitals lacking adequate infection prevention and control measures. Each year Lassa is believed to infect around 500,000 people, killing around 5,000.
Sadly, whilst Lassa fever has been known about for over 50 years, major barriers to Lassa fever care still exist and a lot remains unknown about the disease. For now there is no vaccine and the process of diagnosis remains complex and too costly for many. Furthermore, the main drug used to treat Lassa fever, Ribavirin is not only expensive and out of reach for most people across West Africa, but it needs to be administered within the first six days of treatment and has not been proven effective in randomised controlled trials.
Adding to the complexity, Lassa fever patients are deeply stigmatised across West Africa. This is because of Lassa Fever’s association with hunting rats which are a common source of food for lower socio-economic groups.
THE PROJECT
MSF’s project in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, began in March 2018 to respond to Lassa Fever, with a specific focus on reducing transmission to health care workers and improving case management in order to reduce mortality amongst patients with the long term view of influencing protocols for Nigeria, as well as further afield in West Africa’s Lassa Zone.
An MSF team is supporting AE-FUTHA, a 750 bed hospital not only to care for Lassa patients in line with the most recent protocols but also to ensure the protection of staff, caretakers, patients and visitors against Lassa fever. MSF has supported in the identification and isolation of cases through defining patient and staff flow, construction of isolation units, training of health care workers and provision of PPE. In addition to this, MSF is educating patients at entry points of hospital on Lassa fever and supporting the provision of care for patients including clinical, mental health support and laboratory activities.