Lassa Fever Immune Plasma

During the year the Field Investigator, Mr. J.E. Yalley-Ogunro, emigrated to the United States; at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, he isolated Lassa virus (LV) from 85 patients whose specimens has been accumulating there over an 18 month period. In this absence from Liberia the Clinical Investigator, Dr. Andrew Cole, assumed many of Mr. Yalley-Ogunro's responsibilities. However, serological testing for LV antibodies by the indirect fluorescent antibody test was suspended; the technologist chosen to perform this test proved to be personally unreliable, and was dismissed. The loss of another technologist, that a Phebe Hospital (PH), coincided with a marked increase in the number of Lassa Fever cases in the institution, and resulted in state of disarray in the program there. Keywords: Lassa fever, Lassa virus, Plasma, Human, Immunotherapy, Liberia.