Virus Load Kinetics in Lassa Fever Patients Treated With Ribavirin: A Retrospective Cohort Study From Southern Nigeria.

Background

The standard of care for Lassa fever is the use of ribavirin with supportive therapy. There is little information on the course of viremia and its relationship with clinical outcomes in patients treated with ribavirin.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective analysis of virologic and clinical parameters of 152 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-confirmed Lassa fever cases admitted and treated with ribavirin therapy. We describe the Lassa virus RNA kinetics in blood in relation to the clinical course of the patients.

Results

The overall mortality was 9%. The median duration (interquartile range [IQR]) of illness before admission was 8 (5-12) days. Median (IQR) Ct values on admission (

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates that the Ct value on admission has prognostic value and Lassa fever patients treated with ribavirin typically clear the virus within 3-4 weeks of hospitalization. This kinetics has implications for the design of clinical case management and future clinical trial protocols.

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Potential conflicts of interest. The authors: no reported conflicts of interest.