Lassa fever A study of 23 hospital cases

contracted the disease. 2 died and 1 survived after a prolonged illness. The patients in this study became infected during an outbreak centred in Jos just 1 year after the initial cases (TRouP et al., 1970). There were 28 cases in January and February of 1970. 21 of these were admitted to the Evangel Hospital, and 2 (Cases 5 and 9) were in the Vom Christian Hospital*, 13 miles from Jos. These 23 hospital cases provided the information for this study. General data There were 13 females and 10 males in the series. The age range was 6 to 46 with a mean of 26-6 years. One patient was American. The others were all Nigerian. Lassa virus was isolated from 12 patients. Of these, 5 were found to have complement fixing (CF) antibodies to he Lassa virus~. 3 other patients were found to be CF positive. One patient (Case 1) was subsequently found to have Lassa neutralizing antibodies. The diagnosis was not confirmed by isolation of virus or presence of antibodies in 7 patients. 5 of these died from their illness, and 2 have not been found for follow-up studies. The clinical picture of these 7 patients was so similar to those with a laboratory