Patient who died last week from Lassa fever 'was a newborn baby'

Patient who died last week from Lassa fever ‘was a newborn baby’

A patient who died from Lassa fever last week was a newborn baby, according to reports.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed on Friday that a person with the Ebola-like disease had died in Bedfordshire, and that two other people were infected.

All three cases were linked to recent travel in West Africa.

The death was of an infant at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, according to the BBC, which quoted an email sent to staff by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Hundreds of frontline workers at the hospital, as well as at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, were reportedly told to isolate after being identified as potential contacts.

Lassa fever is an acute viral infection endemic in parts of Africa, and the UKHSA has assured the public that the risk of further infections in the UK remains “very low”.

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Before the three recent infections, eight cases had been identified in the UK since 1980.

The cases are the first of the disease to be confirmed in the UK since 2009.

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