Lassa virus-infected rodents in refugee camps in Guinea: a looming threat to public health in a politically unstable region.

Rodent-borne and other communicable diseases are of particular concern to vulnerable populations in complex humanitarian emergencies. We assessed the risk of Lassa fever to refugees and humanitarian aid workers in the Forest Region of Guinea by trapping rodents and testing them for the presence of Lassa virus infection. Our study provides a point prevalence of Lassa virus-infected rodents in various refugee camps in Guinea, suggesting that the risk of disease may be highest in camps further south toward the border with Liberia.

[Characterization of contacts of the population of Guinea with synanthropic rodents as Lassa fever virus carriers].

Questionnaire surveys made in 17 villages from 3 ecological zones of Guinea have provided evidence for the population's contact with synanthropic rodents as Lassa fever virus carriers. Over 100 rodents are quarterly captured in the houses of the traditional type in the villages located in the savanna woodland. Less than 10 specimens are captured at the food warehouses.

Lassa fever in Guinea: II. Distribution and prevalence of Lassa virus infection in small mammals.

Rodents of the genus Mastomys form the reservoir for Lassa virus (LV), an arenavirus that causes a potentially severe hemorrhagic illness, Lassa fever (LF). Although Mastomys rodents exist throughout sub-Saharan Africa, areas of human LF appear to be quite focal. The distribution of small mammals and LV-infected Mastomys has been assessed in only a few countries.

[Problems with envenomations in Guinea].

Only a few years after its creation, the Kindia Pasteur Institute (currently Institut de Recherche de Biologie Appliquée de Guinée, IRBAG), owing to its geographical situation, began regularly supplying the Paris Pasteur Institute with snake venom for manufacturing antivenom. The diversity of the biotopes in Guinea due mainly to the diversity of vegetation (savannah, forest, mangrove) and altitudes (coastal zone, mountains of Fouta-Djalon and mountain of High Guinea), induces a wide variety of the herpetological fauna. Envenomations are consequently a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in a country where agriculture is an important economic activity.

Hunting of peridomestic rodents and consumption of their meat as possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus in the Republic of Guinea.

In this population-based study, we correlated possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus with markers of Lassa fever in two different regions of the Republic of Guinea (Prefectures of Pita and Gueckedou). Antibody prevalence was 2.6% (6 of 232) in Pita compared with 14.