Description of the situation
18 January 2000
Disease Outbreak Reported
The 23 year old student who contracted Lassa fever while in Africa in November and December died on 15 January 2000 at the Tropical Medicine Department of the Würzburg Hospital, Germany, where she had been treated in an isolation ward. No secondary cases have been reported. As mentioned previously, risk of infection to casual contacts is considered to be minimal to since virus transmission requires contact with blood or body fluids.