Virus Load Kinetics in Lassa Fever Patients Treated With Ribavirin: A Retrospective Cohort Study From Southern Nigeria.

Background: The standard of care for Lassa fever is the use of ribavirin with supportive therapy. There is little information on the course of viremia and its relationship with clinical outcomes in patients treated with ribavirin.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of virologic and clinical parameters of 152 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-confirmed Lassa fever cases admitted and treated with ribavirin therapy.

Understanding Host-Virus Interactions: Assessment of Innate Immune Responses in Cells after Arenavirus Infection.

is the natural host of various arenaviruses, including the human-pathogenic Lassa virus. Homologous arenaviruses, defined here as those having as a natural host, can establish long-lasting infection in while these animals rapidly clear arenaviruses having another rodent species as a natural host (heterologous viruses). Little is known about the mechanisms behind the underlying arenavirus-host barriers.

Pharmacokinetics of Ribavirin in the Treatment of Lassa Fever: An Observational Clinical Study at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria.

Background: Lassa fever is endemic in large parts of West Africa. The recommended antiviral treatment is ribavirin. Two treatment regimens are currently endorsed in Nigeria: the "McCormick regimen" based on a study published in 1986 and the "Irrua regimen" constituting a simplified schedule developed at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.

Virus persistence after recovery from acute Lassa fever in Nigeria: a 2-year interim analysis of a prospective longitudinal cohort study.

Background: There is anecdotal evidence for Lassa virus persistence in body fluids. We aimed to investigate various body fluids after recovery from acute Lassa fever, describe the dynamics of Lassa virus RNA load in seminal fluid, and assess the infectivity of seminal fluid.

Methods: In this prospective, longitudinal, cohort study we collected plasma, urine, saliva, lacrimal fluid, vaginal fluid, and seminal fluid from Lassa fever survivors from Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo State, Nigeria.

Resurgence of Ebola virus in 2021 in Guinea suggests a new paradigm for outbreaks.

Seven years after the declaration of the first epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea, the country faced a new outbreak-between 14 February and 19 June 2021-near the epicentre of the previous epidemic. Here we use next-generation sequencing to generate complete or near-complete genomes of Zaire ebolavirus from samples obtained from 12 different patients. These genomes form a well-supported phylogenetic cluster with genomes from the previous outbreak, which indicates that the new outbreak was not the result of a new spillover event from an animal reservoir.

The East African Community (EAC) mobile laboratory networks in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan-from project implementation to outbreak response against Dengue, Ebola, COVID-19, and epidemic-prone diseases.

Background: East Africa is home to 170 million people and prone to frequent outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers and various bacterial diseases. A major challenge is that epidemics mostly happen in remote areas, where infrastructure for Biosecurity Level (BSL) 3/4 laboratory capacity is not available. As samples have to be transported from the outbreak area to the National Public Health Laboratories (NPHL) in the capitals or even flown to international reference centres, diagnosis is significantly delayed and epidemics emerge.

A Sporadic and Lethal Lassa Fever Case in Forest Guinea, 2019.

Lassa fever is a rodent-borne disease caused by Lassa virus (LASV). It causes fever, dizziness, vertigo, fatigue, coughing, diarrhea, internal bleeding and facial edema. The disease has been known in Guinea since 1960 but only anectodical acute cases have been reported to date.

Analysis of Diagnostic Findings From the European Mobile Laboratory in Guéckédou, Guinea, March 2014 Through March 2015.

Background: A unit of the European Mobile Laboratory (EMLab) consortium was deployed to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) treatment unit in Guéckédou, Guinea, from March 2014 through March 2015.

Methods: The unit diagnosed EVD and malaria, using the RealStar Filovirus Screen reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kit and a malaria rapid diagnostic test, respectively.

Results: The cleaned EMLab database comprised 4719 samples from 2741 cases of suspected EVD from Guinea.

Unique human immune signature of Ebola virus disease in Guinea.

Despite the magnitude of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, there is still a fundamental lack of knowledge about the pathophysiology of EVD. In particular, very little is known about human immune responses to Ebola virus. Here we evaluate the physiology of the human T cell immune response in EVD patients at the time of admission to the Ebola Treatment Center in Guinea, and longitudinally until discharge or death.

Correction: Experimental Treatment with Favipiravir for Ebola Virus Disease (the JIKI Trial): A Historically Controlled, Single-Arm Proof-of-Concept Trial in Guinea.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.

Real-time, portable genome sequencing for Ebola surveillance.

The Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa is the largest on record, responsible for over 28,599 cases and more than 11,299 deaths. Genome sequencing in viral outbreaks is desirable to characterize the infectious agent and determine its evolutionary rate. Genome sequencing also allows the identification of signatures of host adaptation, identification and monitoring of diagnostic targets, and characterization of responses to vaccines and treatments.

Temporal and spatial analysis of the 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

West Africa is currently witnessing the most extensive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak so far recorded. Until now, there have been 27,013 reported cases and 11,134 deaths. The origin of the virus is thought to have been a zoonotic transmission from a bat to a two-year-old boy in December 2013 (ref.