Lassa fever explained after three cases of the virus are discovered in the UK

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Last week, it was announced that one person in England had died after contracting Lassa fever. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed that the person was among the three people south of the border who have contacted the virus.

It is believed that two of the cases are linked to recent travel to West Africa. Work is now being carried out to identify close contacts of the three cases identified in the UK so far.

Here is what we know about the virus so far.Lassa fever has been described as an ‘acute viral hameorrhagic illness' that is caused by the Lassa virus.The virus has become endemic in a number of West African countries, and the UK has only previously recorded eight cases of Lassa fever since 1980.So far, three cases of the virus have been recently recorded in England over the past few days.

The last recorded cases prior to these infections came in 2009, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Did you know you can keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to our daily newsletter?We send a morning and lunchtime newsletter covering the latest headlines every day.We also send coronavirus updates at 5pm on weekdays, and a round up of the week's must-read stories on Sunday afternoons.Signing up is simple, easy and free.You can pop your email address into the sign up box above, hit Subscribe and we'll do the rest.Alternatively, you can sign up and check out the rest of our newsletters here.The World Health Organisation has said that around 80 per cent of people who have become infected with Lassa fever have no symptoms.