Contemporary and emerging pharmacotherapeutic agents for the treatment of Lassa viral haemorrhagic fever disease

Abstract This review was designed to discuss the emerging and current pharmacotherapeutic agents for the treatment of Lassa viral haemorrhagic fever disease (LVHFD), also known as Lassa fever (LF). Original peer-reviewed articles that investigated LF were identified using the Medline Entrez-PubMed search. Information was also sourced from printed textbooks and reports by recognized health professional bodies such as the WHO, CDC, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A total of 103 articles were reviewed and 78 were found to contain information relevant to the study. LF remains an endemic disease of public health concern in the West Africa region, and in the rest of the world as cases have been imported into non-endemic regions as well. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the treatment of Lassa mammarenavirus (LASV) infection. There are, however, off-label therapeutics being used (ribavirin and convalescent plasma) whose efficacy is suboptimal. Research is still ongoing on possible therapeutic options and drug repurposing of therapeutic agents currently in use for other clinical conditions. Considered therapeutic options include favipiravir, taribavirin, Arevirumab-3 and experimental drugs such as losmapimod, adamantyl diphenyl piperazine 3.3, Arbidol (umifenovir) and decanoyl-RRLL-chloromethyl ketone (dec-RRLL-CMK). Current treatments for LF are limited, hence the institution of mitigating measures to prevent infection is of utmost importance and should be prioritized, especially in endemic regions. Heightened searches for other therapeutic options with greater efficacy and lower toxicity are still ongoing, as well as for vaccines as the absence of these classifies the disease as a priority disease of high public health impact.