By Umaru Fofana
A Dutch medical doctor who contracted Lassa Fever at the Masanga Hospital in Tonkolili District has died after he was repatriated.
Dr Noulet Woucher was one of ten European doctors – seven Dutch and three British – who were evacuated last week but died over the weekend.
According to the District Medical Officer, Dr Abdul Mac Falama, Dr Woucher was infected along with another of his compatriots and a Sierra Leonean anaesthetist after they carried out a surgery on a pregnant woman “who was bleeding profusely” – one of the signs of Lassa Fever. She later died.
The Sierra Leonean anaesthetist is admitted at the Kenema Lassa Fever unit.
Also admitted there is a nurse from Mansanga. She is said to be sick with “an unusually high fever” – one of the symptoms of Lassa – but two tests on her have so far returned negative.
Dr Falama says the eight other Europeans were flown out because they were “high risk” cases having been exposed to the confirmed and suspected index cases.
They had been working there as part of support to the hospital which services hundreds of patients every month. 45 contacts have been line listed, among them 29 health workers.
This is the first time any European medic has been infected with Lassa Fever in Sierra Leone. The disease has for long been endemic in eastern Sierra Leone especially in Kenema and Kailahun Districts. But sources at the Viral Haemorrhagic Fever Centre in Kenema say in the last five years cases have been reported in Moyamba in the south and Tonkilili and Koinadugu in the north.
Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Amara Jambai says government has deployed experts to the area. He told Politico that the national level support staff have been deployed and the Emergency Operational Centre, a residue of the Ebola outbreak, has been triggered.
Dr Jambai says experts in areas of surveillance, laboratory and treatment have also been dispatched.
The Kenema Lassa Fever Unit workers, who have been dealing with the disease for years are leading the response, he says.
He says Masanga Hospital has not been closed but that the theatre and maternity wings will be suspended for infection prevention and control measures. The hospital which is run by the Dutch does not only treat patients, but also trains surgical Community Health Officers who are helping with healthcare across the country.
Dr Austin Demby, an American of Sierra Leonean origin who worked with the US Centre for Disease Control for more than 30 years, says “about 300-400 cases are reported every year” with the disease endemic also in Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria.
“We know how it’s prevented, transmitted, and effectively treated so there is no need to panic. The natural reservoir for the Lassa virus is a particular type of rat, Mastomys natalensis. When the infected rat infects humans through their contaminated urine, faeces, or blood, 30% of such infected individuals get sick enough to be hospitalized” Dr Demby told Politico.
“It is worse for pregnant women who would normally abort and the blood associated with such abortions puts everyone at particularly high risk”, he went on. He assured that the disease is “very different from Ebola…and is caused by a different family of viruses Arenaviridae while Ebola is from the family, Filoviridae” and it is less easily transmissible and a lot less fatal.
Dr Demby, who now works with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) - a sister Agency of CDC – says there is a standard effective drug for Lassa fever, Ribavirin that costs $17 per course.
“Let’s not panic, and instead of spending our precious time wishing it away, praying it away, or spinning conspiracy theories, there are practical ways of responding and containing this outbreak” he said. He says the teams in Kenema, Segbwema and Panguma hospitals are capable to deal with it
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