The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (IDHHS) today announced the death of a middle-aged eastern Iowa resident from Lassa fever, a rare viral hemorrhagic fever that can be transmitted among humans through infected body fluids.

In a statement, officials said the individual had recently traveled to West Africa, where they are thought to have contracted the virus. Initial testing was conducted at the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory, and confirmation testing is under way at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

State working with partners on contact tracing

The patient was receiving treatment at the University of Iowa Health Care, and state health officials are working with the CDC and local partners to identify contacts.

“This is a difficult time for the family of this individual and I want to express our deepest condolences,” said Robert Kruse, MD, MPH, state medical director at he IDHHS. “I want to assure Iowans that the risk of transmission is incredibly low in our state. We continue to investigate and monitor this situation and are implementing the necessary public health protocols.”

The United States has now reported eight travel-related Lassa virus cases over the past 55 years. The country reported its last imported case in 2015 in a person returning from Liberia to New Jersey.

Lassa fever is typically transmitted by rodents, and though most human illnesses are mild or moderate, infections are deadly in about 1% of cases. Causing as many as 300,000 cases each year, the virus is endemic in parts of West Africa. In July, an expert group led by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) raised concerns about the slow pace of treatments of vaccines for Lassa virus and published a roadmap to address the growing threat.

In updates over the last 3 days, Rwanda’s health ministry has reported one more Marburg virus case.

The most recent patient is a contact of an earlier identified patient, the ministry said in an October 26 update. The country now has 65 cases, of which 15 were fatal. In an update today, officials said three people are currently in treatment for their infections.

The country had reported two cases a few days earlier, one of whom is a health worker, and the other has links to the site where the index patient was exposed, a cave in a mining area that harbored fruit bats known to carry the virus.

After the identification of the index case in late September, nearly all cases that followed involved healthcare workers at two hospitals in Kigali. However, the two most recent cases appear to involve people from the community who were under monitoring. 

A case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed on an upstate New York deer farm, according to a press release yesterday from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

After the case was identified through routine Departments of Agriculture and Markets surveillance in DEC Region 6, the state activated its interagency CWD response plan to investigate the detection and increase surveillance of wild deer in the area.

"While there is no evidence that CWD is present in wild deer at this time, DEC will initiate enhanced surveillance in wild deer, working with local hunters, processors, and taxidermists in the area," DEC said. "Efforts are also underway to collect roadkill to determine if CWD is present in wild deer. This enhanced sampling and monitoring will inform additional actions to guide the state’s disease management strategy."

First confirmed case since 2005

CWD, a neurologic disease that affects cervids such as deer, elk, moose, and reindeer, was first confirmed in New York among captive and wild deer in 2005 in Oneida County, also located in Region 6. "Since that time, DEC has tested more than 65,000 wild deer statewide with no additional cases discovered in New York," the release said.

While there is no evidence that CWD is present in wild deer at this time, DEC will initiate enhanced surveillance in wild deer, working with local hunters, processors, and taxidermists in the area.

The illness is caused by misfolded infectious proteins called prions, which are extremely resilient and can persist in the environment for years. CWD poses an ongoing threat to cervids, because it can spread from animal to animal and through environmental contamination. The disease isn't known to infect humans, but officials recommend not eating meat from a sick animal and using precautions when field-dressing or butchering cervids.

• San Diego County health officials said last week that they are investigating a second locally acquired dengue infection, this time in a Vista resident who was hospitalized. The county’s vector-control department is treating the area around 60 homes in Vista, which is about 42 miles north of San Diego. The county reported its first case on August 6, which involved a resident of Escondido. Over the past several weeks, Los Angeles County has reported nine locally acquired dengue cases, including a cluster of six in Baldwin Park.
• Mauritius on October 26 announced its first mpox case, which involves a 49-year-old man who had traveled from Nigeria, according to a government announcement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board. The patient is being treated in isolation at a hospital in Port Louis. The report didn’t note the clade of the virus. The country’s case brings the number of African nations reporting mpox cases this year to 19.
• The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) today announced a $1 million grant to support work by Abera Bioscience to see if its bacteria-based platform can boost mucosal immunity of an intranasal vaccine being developed as a next-generation vaccine to respond to epidemic and pandemic threats. The platform involves bacterial outer-membrane vesicles, noninfectious particles that some bacteria release that are known to boost immunity.