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Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016

Due to rapid diagnosis and isolation of imported cases, community outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are considered unlikely in industrialised countries. In March 2016, the first documented locally acquired case of Lassa fever (LF) outside Africa occurred, demonstrating the disease’s poten...

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Autores principales: Ehlkes, Lutz, George, Maja, Samosny, Gerhard, Burckhardt, Florian, Vogt, Manfred, Bent, Stefan, Jahn, Klaus, Zanger, Philipp
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29019309
http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.39.16-00728
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author Ehlkes, Lutz
George, Maja
Samosny, Gerhard
Burckhardt, Florian
Vogt, Manfred
Bent, Stefan
Jahn, Klaus
Zanger, Philipp
author_facet Ehlkes, Lutz
George, Maja
Samosny, Gerhard
Burckhardt, Florian
Vogt, Manfred
Bent, Stefan
Jahn, Klaus
Zanger, Philipp
author_sort Ehlkes, Lutz
collection PubMed
description Due to rapid diagnosis and isolation of imported cases, community outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are considered unlikely in industrialised countries. In March 2016, the first documented locally acquired case of Lassa fever (LF) outside Africa occurred, demonstrating the disease’s potential as a cross-border health threat. We describe the management surrounding this case of LF in Rhineland-Palatinate – the German federal state where secondary transmission occurred. Twelve days after having been exposed to the corpse of a LF case imported from Togo, a symptomatic undertaker tested positive for Lassa virus RNA. Potential contacts were traced, categorised based on exposure risk, and monitored. Overall, we identified 21 contact persons with legal residency in Rhineland-Palatinate: seven related to the index case, 13 to the secondary case, and one related to both. The secondary case received treatment and recovered. Five contacts were quarantined and one was temporarily banned from work. No further transmission occurred. Based on the experience gained during the outbreak and a review of national and international guidelines, we conclude that exposure risk attributable to corpses may currently be underestimated, and we present suggestions that may help to improve the anti-epidemic response to imported VHF cases in industrialised countries.
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spelling pubmed-57099552017-12-07 Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016 Ehlkes, Lutz George, Maja Samosny, Gerhard Burckhardt, Florian Vogt, Manfred Bent, Stefan Jahn, Klaus Zanger, Philipp Euro Surveill Surveillance and Outbreak Report Due to rapid diagnosis and isolation of imported cases, community outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are considered unlikely in industrialised countries. In March 2016, the first documented locally acquired case of Lassa fever (LF) outside Africa occurred, demonstrating the disease’s potential as a cross-border health threat. We describe the management surrounding this case of LF in Rhineland-Palatinate – the German federal state where secondary transmission occurred. Twelve days after having been exposed to the corpse of a LF case imported from Togo, a symptomatic undertaker tested positive for Lassa virus RNA. Potential contacts were traced, categorised based on exposure risk, and monitored. Overall, we identified 21 contact persons with legal residency in Rhineland-Palatinate: seven related to the index case, 13 to the secondary case, and one related to both. The secondary case received treatment and recovered. Five contacts were quarantined and one was temporarily banned from work. No further transmission occurred. Based on the experience gained during the outbreak and a review of national and international guidelines, we conclude that exposure risk attributable to corpses may currently be underestimated, and we present suggestions that may help to improve the anti-epidemic response to imported VHF cases in industrialised countries. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 2017-09-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5709955/ /pubmed/29019309 http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.39.16-00728 Text en This article is copyright of The Authors, 2017. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Surveillance and Outbreak Report
Ehlkes, Lutz
George, Maja
Samosny, Gerhard
Burckhardt, Florian
Vogt, Manfred
Bent, Stefan
Jahn, Klaus
Zanger, Philipp
Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title_full Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title_fullStr Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title_full_unstemmed Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title_short Management of a Lassa fever outbreak, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2016
title_sort management of a lassa fever outbreak, rhineland-palatinate, germany, 2016
topic Surveillance and Outbreak Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29019309
http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.39.16-00728
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