Background:
Recent
reports have shown an expansion of
Lassa virus from the area where it was first isolated in
Nigeria to other areas of
West Africa. Two Ghanaian
soldiers on a
United Nations peacekeeping mission in
Liberia were taken ill with viral haemorrhagic
fever syndrome following the
death of a sick colleague and were referred to a
military hospital in Accra;
Ghana; in May 2013.
Blood samples from the
soldiers and five asymptomatic close contacts were subjected to
laboratory investigations.
Objective:
We
report the results of these investigations to highlight the importance of
molecular diagnostic applications and the need for heightened
awareness about
Lassa fever in
West Africa.
Methods:
We used molecular assays on sera from the two
patients to identify the causativeorganism. Upon
detection of positive signals for
Lassa virus ribonucleic material by two different
polymerase chain reaction assays; sequencing and
phylogenetic analyses were performed.
Results:
The presence of
Lassa virus in the
soldiers'
blood samples was shown by L-
gene segment homology to be the Macenta and las803792
strains previously isolated in
Liberia; with close relationships then confirmed by
phylogenetic tree construction. The five asymptomatic close contacts were negative for
Lassa virus.
Conclusions:
The
Lassa virus strains identified in the two Ghanaian
soldiers had molecular epidemiological links to
strains from
Liberia.
Lassa virus was probably responsible for the outbreak of viral haemorrhagic
fever in the
military camp. These data confirm
Lassa fever endemicity in
West Africa