Lassa fever A study of 23 hospital cases

This is a clinical report from 23 hospital cases of Lassa fever in northern Nigeria. Lassa fever is an acute severe virus infection involving many systems of the body. It presents with high fever, toxicity, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, severe pharyngitis with white patches in the pharynx, soft palate and tonsillar pillars, cough, epigastric pain and tenderness, and bleeding tendency. Laboratory findings are presented. The disease has a very high mortality rate which exceeded 50% in this series of hospital cases. There is no known cure, and only antibiotics and supportive care were given.