Correction: Only one contact is positive for Lassa. The other two tested negative.
In a follow-up to the Lassa fever situation in Germany, see HERE, HERE and HERE, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is reporting (computer translated) additional nosocomially transmitted contacts with the original patient who contracted the virus in Togo, bringing the total to three infected and in isolation units in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.
These are the first Lassa fever cases transmitted outside of Africa.
The initial patient, medical director of a missionary hospital in Togo, Todd DeKryger, died in a Cologne hospital after initially being treated for malaria.
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta is treating another American infected with Lassa. There has been no updates on this case since a tweet on Mar. 12.
Currently, West Africa is experiencing widespread Lassa fever activity in Nigeria, Benin and Togo. The US has seen a half-dozen imported Lassa fever cases, recording a fatality in New Jersey 10 months ago. There has never been person-to-person transmission of Lassa fever documented in the United States.
Related:
- Lassa fever: 20 percent of cases could be due to human-to-human transmission, Cambridge study
- Lassa fever virus has ‘very ancient roots’, traced back a millennium to what is now Nigeria
- US Embassy in Togo warns citizens about Lassa fever
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