Lassa viruses Undertaker infected with dangerous Lassa fever

Patient with Lassa fever admitted to university clinic
A funeral director has been infected by a dead body while working with the dangerous Lassa virus. This is reported by the authorities from Rhineland-Palatinate. The man from Alzey was immediately taken to the Frankfurt University Hospital and is there on the isolation ward.
Undertaker had contact with an infected corpse
A patient suffering from Lassa fever has been admitted to the special isolation ward of the Frankfurt University Hospital. The person concerned is the employee of a funeral home in Alzey (Rhineland-Palatinate). There, he had apparently been infected with the virus in contact with a Lassa patient who died a few weeks ago, according to the "dpa", citing the district administration of Alzey-Worms. The man from Togo, who had worked there as a nurse, had died at the end of February in the University Hospital Cologne.

Undertaker dies of Lassa fever. Image: ostrid - fotolia

In order to transfer the body to Africa, she had been taken to the funeral home in Alzey at the beginning of March - without the knowledge that the man was suffering from Lassa fever. This turns out first a few days later, after which the employee of the Undertaker company investigated and finally the virus was detected.

First possible case of infection acquired in Germany
After finding the disease, the man was immediately taken to the Frankfurt University Hospital and is now in quarantine. The family members of the patient were taken as a precaution also inpatient, so the district administration Alzey-Worms on. "It would be the first case of a Lassa virus infection acquired in Germany," said the virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, opposite the "dpa".

Lassafieber belongs as e.g. Ebola and Dengue to the so-called "hemorrhagic fever diseases".

The natural host of the pathogen is the rodent "Mastomys natalensis" in West Africa. Transmission is via contact or smear infection (e.g., via contaminated food) first to humans and then frequently further from human to human, e.g. about blood, saliva, vomit or bleeding drops. The virus can cause fever, headache and muscle pain, and in the further course of skin bleeding, diarrhea and vomiting are possible. In an emergency, the infection can lead to internal bleeding and thus become life-threatening. In Germany, the disease is very rare when imported by travelers from Africa. According to the RKI, only five introduced diseases have been registered since 1974. (No)