Diagnosing Lassa virus infection by tracking the antiviral response
Background Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus. It infects 300,000 to 500,000 West Africans every year, with a mortality rate among hospitalized patients of 15%. It is difficult to diagnose because its early symptoms (fever, sore throat, general malaise) often go unnoticed, or are confused with those of the common flu, malaria, or other febrile diseases. For this reason, there is considerable interest in developing tests that can detect the presence of the virus at the earliest stages of infection, when treatment is most effective. Methods such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or the