Hunting of peridomestic rodents and consumption of their meat as possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus in the Republic of Guinea

In this population-based study, we correlated possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus with markers of Lassa fever in two different regions of the Republic of Guinea (Prefectures of Pita and Gueckedou). Antibody prevalence was 2.6% (6 of 232) in Pita compared with 14.0%...

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Published inThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene Vol. 55; no. 6; p. 661
Main Authors Ter Meulen, J, Lukashevich, I, Sidibe, K, Inapogui, A, Marx, M, Dorlemann, A, Yansane, M L, Koulemou, K, Chang-Claude, J, Schmitz, H
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.12.1996
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Antibodies, Viral - blood
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Food Microbiology
Guinea - epidemiology
Humans
Lassa Fever - epidemiology
Lassa Fever - transmission
Lassa virus - immunology
Male
Meat - virology
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Muridae
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Rodentia
Guinea
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Summary:In this population-based study, we correlated possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus with markers of Lassa fever in two different regions of the Republic of Guinea (Prefectures of Pita and Gueckedou). Antibody prevalence was 2.6% (6 of 232) in Pita compared with 14.0% (105 of 751) in Gueckedou, with up to 35.0% seropositivity in selected villages of the higher prevalence area. We observed three major risk factors in Gueckedou favoring Lassa virus transmission: rodent infestation was much higher, food was more often stored uncovered and most strikingly, peridomestic rodents were hunted as a protein source by 91.5% of the population as opposed to 0% in Pita. To control for the confounding effects of differences in rodent infestation and food storage, rodent consumption was analyzed as a risk factor for transmission of Lassa virus comparing rodent consumers (RC) and nonconsumers (NC) in Gueckedou only: 14.6% of RC had Lassa virus antibodies versus 7.4% of NC (P = 0.1) and 23.0% of RC reported a history of a febrile illness with hearing loss (the most common sequel of Lassa fever) versus 6.1% of NC (P = 0.003).
ISSN:0002-9637
DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.1996.55.661