Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Lassa fever differential diagnosis
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Lassa fever must be differentiated from other diseases that cause hemorrhagic fever, diarrhea, muscle fatigue, such as Ebola infection, Typhoid fever, Malaria, Diphtheria, Legionellosis, Congo-hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, and Shigellosis.
Differentiating Lassa fever from other Diseases
Differentiating Lassa fever from other Diseases
The table below summarizes the findings that differentiate Lassa fever from other conditions that cause fever, diarrhea and mucosal bleeding:[1]
| Disease | Findings |
|---|---|
| Ebola | Manifests with fever, chills vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise. Disease often progresses and manifestations may include internal and external bleeding, that follow an incubation period of 2-21 days. |
| Typhoid fever | Manifests with fever, headache, rash, gastrointestinal symptoms, with lymphadenopathy, relative bradycardia, cough and leucopenia and sometimes sore throat. Blood and stool culture can confirm the presence of the causative bacteria. |
| Malaria | Manifests with acute fever, headache and sometimes diarrhea (children). A blood smears must be examined for malaria parasites. The presence of parasites does not exclude a concurrent viral infection. An antimalarial should be prescribed as an empiric therapy. |
| Shigellosis | Manifests with diarrhea, possibly bloody, accompanied by fever, nausea, and sometimes toxemia, vomiting, cramps, and tenesmus. Stools contain blood and mucous in a typical case. A search for possible sites of bacterial infection, together with cultures and blood smears, should be made. Presence of leucocytosis distinguishes bacterial infections from viral infections. |
| Yellow fever and other Flaviviridae | Manifests with hemorrhagic complications. Epidemiological investigation may reveal a pattern of disease transmission by an insect vector. Virus isolation and serological investigation serves to distinguish these viruses. Confirmed history of previous yellow fever vaccination will rule out yellow fever. |
| Others | Viral hepatitis, leptospirosis, rheumatic fever, typhus, and mononucleosis can produce signs and symptoms that may be in the differential diagnosis of with Lassa fever in the early stages of infection. |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: João André Alves Silva, M.D. [2]