NewsDesk @bactiman63

In a follow-up on the Lassa fever outbreak recently declared in Guinea, The Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of Guinea reported a second confirmed case on April 29.

Guinea map
Image/CIA

The individual, a 24-year-old male from Koumassan village, Wokouama sector, has no known epidemiological linkage to the first case.

Lassa fever is endemic in parts of West Africa including Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria where the natural reservoir of the Lassa virus, the mastomys rodents, has been found. Sociocultural practices including hunting for the rodents have been known risk factors for Lassa fever infection in the region.

The World Health Organization says the newly declared Lassa fever outbreak in Guinea is of grave concern in the context of a country with a fragile health system that has faced multiple disease outbreaks such as Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, yellow fever, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Health authorities are currently conducting in-depth epidemiological investigations to determine the source of infection.