Lassa Virus Infection: a Summary for Clinicians

This summary on Lassa virus (LASV) infection and Lassa fever disease (LF) was developed from a clinical perspective to provide clinicians with a condensed, accessible understanding of the current literature. The information provided highlights pathogenesis, clinical features, and diagnostics emphasizing therapies and vaccines that have demonstrated potential value for use in clinical or research environments.

Vanessa Raabe, Aneesh K Mehta, Jared D Evans

2022-04-05

Raabe, V., A. K. Mehta, and J. D. Evans. 2022. "Lassa Virus Infection: a Summary for Clinicians." Int J Infect Dis 119:187-200. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.04.004.

Objectives

This summary on Lassa virus (LASV) infection and Lassa fever disease (LF) was developed from a clinical perspective to provide clinicians with a condensed, accessible understanding of the current literature. The information provided highlights pathogenesis, clinical features, and diagnostics emphasizing therapies and vaccines that have demonstrated potential value for use in clinical or research environments.

Methods

We conducted an integrative literature review on the clinical and pathological features, vaccines, and treatments for LASV infection, focusing on recent studies and in vivo evidence from humans and/or non-human primates (NHPs), when available.

Results

Two antiviral medications with potential benefit for the treatment of LASV infection and 1 for post-exposure prophylaxis were identified, although a larger number of therapeutic candidates are currently being evaluated. Multiple vaccine platforms are in pre-clinical development for LASV prevention, but data from human clinical trials are not yet available.

Conclusion

We provide succinct summaries of medical countermeasures against LASV to give the busy clinician a rapid reference. Although there are no approved drugs or vaccines for LF, we provide condensed information from a literature review for measures that can be taken when faced with a suspected infection, including investigational treatment options and hospital engineering controls.

Keywords

• Lassa virus
• Lassa fever
• antiviral therapy
• antiviral countermeasure
• vaccine
• viral hemorrhagic fever

Open Access on journal site. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).