An Iowa man died from Lassa fever, the Ebola virus, according to the CDC

This person recently returned from a trip to West Africa. Lassa fever is a viral disease similar to the Ebola virus.

An eastern Iowa man died on Monday from an Ebola-like viral disease that he likely contracted during a recent trip to West Africa.

This is the ninth case of Lassa fever in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lassa fever is often transmitted through the feces of an infected rodent found in West Africa. A middle-aged Iowa man returned from a trip to the region in early October, Iowa public health officials said press release.

The CDC is conducting final lab testing after an individual tested presumptive positive on Monday. The person died Monday afternoon while hospitalized at the University of Iowa Medical Center in isolation from other patients. Lassa fever has symptoms similar to Ebola virus, causing hemorrhagic fever. However, experts say the risk of death is much lower than with Ebola.

State and federal officials say the risk of transmission is low. The CDC said the person did not get sick during the trip, so the risk of spreading the disease to fellow passengers is “exceptionally low.”

“We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing necessary public health protocols,” Dr. Robert Kruse, state medical director at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.

Lassa fever is usually spread through the urine or feces of infected rodents. The only known carrier of the virus is the West African multisamak rat. These rats occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and Lassa fever has been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria, The CDC said. People can spread it through blood or body fluids when they have active symptoms.

In a press release, CDC officials said preliminary information indicates the patient may have been exposed to rodents during a visit to West Africa. Officials, who declined to provide details about the person, are working to identify other people who were in contact with the person when symptoms began.

The CDC said people in close contact with the infected person will be monitored for three weeks. The incubation period of the virus is two to 21 days.

Before this case, eight other people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Lassa fever after returning from a region where Lassa fever was found, the CDC said. Every year in West Africa, approximately 5,000 people die from the virus, out of approximately 100,000 to 300,000 cases per year, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention he said. Experts say most people have mild or no symptoms of the disease, and deaths are rare.

The mortality rate for Lassa fever is much lower than for Ebola virus or Marburg virus, another hemorrhagic fever with high mortalitysaid Dr. David Hamer, professor of global health and medicine at Boston University. He added that in the U.S., rats are unlikely to contract Lassa fever or transmit it to humans.

In rural West Africa, rats typically carry the disease near human food sources. People can then inhale or come into contact with the virus in rat urine or feces, or directly with infected rats.

When someone gets sick, there is a risk of spreading the virus to other people, especially to family, friends and health care workers caring for patients with the virus. It is believed that infection also occurs sexually through the exchange of body fluids.

Hamer said human transmission of the virus “makes there a concern about the potential introduction and spread of the virus in the United States.However, he noted: “This is the ninth case since the 1960s. So it was a rare event.”

According to data, the last case of Lassa fever in the US occurred in 2016 federal records. Then a 33-year-old nurse from Georgia contracted the disease after treating an infected patient in Togo. She finally recovered. The last death from the virus occurred in 2015, when a 55-year-old New Jersey man became infected after working in Liberia and coming into contact with rodents and their feces.

After Monday’s death, officials identified four Americans who died of Lassa fever among nine cases of the disease recorded here.

What are the symptoms of Lassa fever?

According to African health officials, the signs and symptoms of Lassa are usually gradual. Infections are treated with the antiviral drug ribavirin.

According to Africa’s disease control agency, symptoms include fever, weakness and malaise, followed by headache, sore throat, muscle or chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough and abdominal pain. People with severe cases sometimes experience facial swelling, fluid in the lungs, bleeding from the mouth, nose, genitals or digestive tract, and low blood pressure.

Deafness occurs in 25% of patients who survive the disease, but in most of these patients hearing returns in the following months. The African Disease Control Agency says death usually occurs within two weeks of the onset of the disease.

The first documented cases of Lassa fever in the US occurred in 1969. The viral disease took its name from the Nigerian city where two missionary nurses died because of itaccording to the UK Health Safety Agency.

Infections usually occur in the dry season, from December to April, after the breeding cycle of the multisample rat in the rainy season, World Health Organization he said.