Resources

Evidence that rodent control strategies ought to be improved to enhance food security and reduce the risk of rodent-borne illnesses within subsistence farming villages in the plague/endemic West Nile region, Uganda

This resource presents a survey of 37 households from 17 subsistence farming villages within the West Nile region of Uganda. This revealed that rodents cause both pre- and post-harvest damage to crops. Evidence of rodent access to stored foods was reported in conjunction with each of the reported storage practices, and the paper suggests that current efforts are inadequate for effectively reducing rodent abundance in homes.

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Diversity and dynamics in a community of small mammals in coastal Guinea, West Africa

This resource investigated three villages in high endemic zones of Lassa fever in Guinea and presents the biodeiversity of the small mammal community identified through standardized trapping in houses, cultivations and forest.

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Understanding the cryptic nature of Lassa fever in West Africa

In this article the authors give an overview of the current knowledge on Lassa fever (ecology, epidemiology and distribution) and the importance of future socio-ecological changes in the increase of Lassa fever burden.

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Using modelling to disentangle the relative contributions of zoonotic and anthroponotic transmission: The case of Lassa fever

The authors present the results of a modelling approach, using published data from outbreak and patients to Kenema governmental Hospital in Sierra Leone. They estimate the likely contribution to human to human transmission. They shed light on the need to better assess the human to human transmission.

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Fluctuation of abundance and Lassa virus prevalence in Mastomys Natalensis in Guinea, West Africa

This study investigates the link between the ecology of the M. Natalensis and the incidence of Lassa fever in human cases in Guinea. They found that the risk for Lassa virus transmission was present in both rainy and dry season; however the risk increased in the dry season because of the possibility of encountering rodent excreta in the houses.

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