Iowa resident dies of suspected West African virus that can cause permanent hearing loss

An Iowa resident is believed to have died from Lassa fever, a rarely seen virus in the US that causes one in three cases to suffer permanent hearing loss and 95% of infected pregnant women to miscarry.

The patient, who hasn’t been publicly identified, had recently traveled to West Africa where the virus originates and can be found in the region’s rats, health officials said.

The infected individual — who returned to the US from West Africa earlier this month — had been hospitalized in isolation at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center before their death.

On Monday, preliminary tests conducted by the Nebraska Laboratory Response Network revealed that the Iowa resident was positive for Lassa fever — which would mark only the ninth known case of the viral disease in the US since 1969, the year it was first documented in Lassa, Nigeria.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assisting local health officials with identifying close contacts of the patient after they began exhibiting symptoms. The patient did not exhibit any symptoms while traveling, so fellow travelers are not being screened as their risk is “extremely low,” CDC officials said.

Anyone identified as coming in close contact with the deceased patient will be monitored by health officials for 21 days.

Lassa fever symptoms can include fever, fatigue and headaches in mild cases and bleeding, difficulty breathing, vomiting, facial swelling, shock and pain in the chest, back and abdomen in more severe cases, according to the CDC.

Lassa fever can cause permanent hearing loss and deafness among patients with both mild and severe cases. About 1 in 3 cases experience various levels of hearing loss, according to the CDC.

Meanwhile, pregnant women are at serious risk if infected with 95% losing their pregnancy and the fetus.

Those infected with Lassa fever usually begin to experience symptoms within one to three weeks of contracting the viral illness.

The illness cannot be spread before the infected is symptomatic or through casual contact like hugging or shaking hands.

Though the virus is mostly spread by rodents — specifically West African multimammate rats and their feces and urine — it can be spread through contact with the body fluids of an infected individual, according to the CDC.

Investigators believe the Iowa patient had been in contact with the West African rats, according to preliminary info.

West Africa sees about 100,000 to 300,000 cases of Lassa fever each year with an average of 5,000 deaths.

With Post wires