An Iowa man has died from a suspected West African virus that can cause permanent hearing loss

The Iowa resident is believed to have died of Lassa fever, a virus rare in the US that causes permanent hearing loss in one in three cases and miscarriage in 95% of infected pregnant women.

Health officials said the patient, who has not been publicly identified, recently traveled to West Africa, where the virus originated and has been found in rats in that region.

The infected person, who returned to the United States from West Africa earlier this month, was hospitalized in isolation at the University of Iowa Medical Center before his death.

On Monday, preliminary testing by the Nebraska Laboratory Response Network showed that an Iowa man had tested positive for Lassa fever, which would mark only the ninth known case of the viral disease in the U.S. since 1969, when it was first documented in Lassa. Nigeria.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping local health officials identify close contacts of the patient when he began showing symptoms. The patient did not develop any symptoms during the trip, so other travelers are not being screened because their risk of infection is “exceptionally low,” CDC officials say.

Anyone who had close contact with the deceased patient will be monitored by health services for 21 days.

According to the CDC, symptoms of Lassa fever may include fever, fatigue and headaches in mild cases, and bleeding, difficulty breathing, vomiting, facial swelling, shock and pain in the chest, back and abdomen in more severe cases.

Lassa fever can cause permanent hearing loss and deafness in patients in both mild and severe cases. According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 people experience some degree of hearing loss.

Meanwhile, pregnant women are at serious risk if infected, as 95% of them lose their pregnancy and fetus.

People infected with Lassa fever usually begin to experience symptoms within one to three weeks of contracting the viral disease.

The disease cannot spread before the infected person develops symptoms or through casual contact such as hugging or shaking hands.

Although the virus is spread primarily by rodents – specifically West African rats and their feces and urine – according to the CDC, it can be spread through contact with the body fluids of an infected person.

According to preliminary information, investigators believe that the patient from Iowa had contact with rats from West Africa.

In West Africa, approximately 100,000 to 300,000 cases of Lassa fever are reported each year, with an average of 5,000 deaths.

With postal wires