Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1983 Jul;32(4):829-37.
doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1983.32.829.

Case-control study of Mastomys natalensis and humans in Lassa virus-infected households in Sierra Leone

R A Keenlyside, J B McCormick, P A Webb, E Smith, L Elliott, K M Johnson

Case-control study of Mastomys natalensis and humans in Lassa virus-infected households in Sierra Leone

R A Keenlyside et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1983 Jul.

Abstract

Lassa virus infection and antibodies were studied in households where Lassa fever cases occurred, and compared to those in nearest neighbor houses and "far" houses located across the village from case houses. Seventy-nine percent of all rodents caught in the houses were Mastomys, the natural reservoir of Lassa virus. Rodent infection was not randomly distributed, but rather focal. Thirty-nine percent of the Mastomys in case houses were viremic, compared to 3.7% in control houses. Human antibody prevalence in case houses was 30%, compared to 20% in non-case houses (P less than 0.05, chi-square test, df = 2). Neither seroconversions nor antibody prevalence rates were associated with household size or number of persons per room. Trapping of rodents in half of the case and control houses resulted in a Mastomys reduction ranging from 2.2- to 3.3-fold. This reduction failed to significantly reduce the seroconversion rate to Lassa virus in the people of trapped houses compared to those in untrapped ones. More complete trapping will be needed in order to better evaluate this procedure as a means of interruption of Lassa virus transmission in endemic villages.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Substances

LinkOut - more resources