Mapping the susceptibility and resistance of diverse Lassa virus lineage variants to host cellular restriction: a pilot study

Community meeting in Nigeria

Funding from an internal Global Challenges Research Fund scheme enabled us to start to work with Danny Asogun and Deborah Ehichioya at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital

Ambrose Alli University in Nigeria to tackle Lassa fever. The virus that causes Lassa fever (LASV) is transmitted to people as a result of exposure to faeces or urine from infected rodents, including through eating contaminated food. It can cause highly fatal haemorrhagic disease and the frequency of outbreaks in Nigeria has increased in recent years. This project used a multidisciplinary biomedical and social approach to investigate distinct properties of LASV sequences that may be linked to virus emergence and spread. This included virus entry assays in our laboratories to investigate how the virus may have evolved strategies to escape host responses. As disease outbreaks are also a social issue, the team in Nigeria conducted a series of community engagement visits to engage and empower communities that are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of Lassa fever, providing measures to prevent and reduce infection and gaining insight into the interplay between the rodent host, the environment and human behaviour.