TY - JOUR AU - Schoepp, Randal AU - Rossi, Cynthia AU - Khan, Sheik AU - Goba, Augustine AU - Fair, Joseph T1 - Undiagnosed Acute Viral Febrile Illnesses, Sierra Leone T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2014 VL - 20 IS - 7 SP - 1176 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Sierra Leone in West Africa is in a Lassa fever–hyperendemic region that also includes Guinea and Liberia. Each year, suspected Lassa fever cases result in submission of ≈500–700 samples to the Kenema Government Hospital Lassa Diagnostic Laboratory in eastern Sierra Leone. Generally only 30%–40% of samples tested are positive for Lassa virus (LASV) antigen and/or LASV-specific IgM; thus, 60%–70% of these patients have acute diseases of unknown origin. To investigate what other arthropod-borne and hemorrhagic fever viral diseases might cause serious illness in this region and mimic Lassa fever, we tested patient serum samples that were negative for malaria parasites and LASV. Using IgM-capture ELISAs, we evaluated samples for antibodies to arthropod-borne and other hemorrhagic fever viruses. Approximately 25% of LASV-negative patients had IgM to dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, chikungunya, Ebola, and Marburg viruses but not to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. KW - Sierra Leone KW - undiagnosed KW - febrile KW - viruses KW - arthropod-borne KW - hemorrhagic fever KW - diagnostics KW - serologic KW - immunodiagnostics KW - ELISA KW - IgM KW - West Africa KW - Lassa virus KW - vector-borne infections KW - Ebola DO - 10.3201/eid2007.131265 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/7/13-1265_article ER - End of Reference