Lassa fever and COVID‐19 in Africa: A double crisis on the fragile health system

Abstract

Dear Editor, Lassa Fever (LF), an acute zoonotic disease caused by the Lassa fever virus (LFV), has approximately 2 million annual occurrences with 5000 to 10000 deaths. 1 The disease has been identified to be endemic in Africa, particularly West Africa, where a larger percentage is recorded in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, 2 especially as a result of its transmission pathways which is through rodents and warm-blooded species via contact with their pathogenic infected body wastes around the house. [1][2][3] Studies have shown that one of the major challenges facing the fight against this disease is the similarities between its symptoms, that include, sore throat, pains in the joints, back and chest, and weakness, 1 with many other popular diseases. Since the disease can progresses in serious cases to pharynx inflammation, conjunctivitis, abdominal pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and clinical manifestations that range from facial drops to respiratory symptoms, loss of hearing, acute hemorrhagic fever, multiple-organ failure, foetal loss and death, 1,2 that under and misdiagnosis is a problem as early diagnosis

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