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WikiJournal of Medicine
Open access • Publication charge free • Public peer review • Wikipedia-integrated

WikiJournal of Medicine is an open-access, free-to-publish, Wikipedia-integrated academic journal for Medical and Biomedical topics. <seo title=" WJM, WikiJMed, Wiki.J.Med., WikiJMed, Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, WikiJournal Medicine, Wikipedia Medicine, Wikipedia medical journal, WikiMed, Wikimedicine, Wikimedical, Medicine, Biomedicine, Free to publish, Open access, Open-access, Non-profit, online journal, Public peer review "/>

<meta name='citation_doi' value='10.15347/wjm/2019.002.2'>

Article information

Author: Abdulmutalab Musa[a][b][c][i]  

See author information ▼
  1. ↑ Sir Muhammad Sanusi Specialist Hospital, Kano
  2. ↑ Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria
  3. ↑ Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria
  1. ↑ laamiido@gmail.com

This article has been updated since its initial publication on 15 Jun 2019. (summary of changes). The previous version is archived at this link as a record.

Plagiarism check

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion


Initial Editor's comments

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion


Comments by Diptanshu Das, MBBS, MHSc, MD, PDCR, PGPN, IPPN ,
These editorial comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

Dear Abdulmuttalib Musa Maibasira,

RE: An overview of Lassa fever

Thank you for submitting your article. Overall the article is well written but some more formatting is needed.

  1. We request you to include your ORCID http://orcid.org/.
  2. Inline references be inserted using 'Cite' template.
  3. You could get PMID and DOI for the relevant citations from https://apps.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery
  4. Wikilinks be placed for relevant terms.

An external peer-reviewer has already reviewed the article and has submitted his review.

Response

Dear Diptanshu Das

RE: An overview of Lassa fever

Thanks for the revie

1. ORCID have been included

2,3., Inline references have been inserted using 'cite' template

4. Wikilinks have been placed for the relevant terms.



Comments by Diptanshu Das, MBBS, MHSc, MD, PDCR, PGPN, IPPN (ORCID iD 0000-0002-7221-5022) ,
These editorial comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

Thank you for the changes which have adequately addressed the issues I had raised. I external peer reviewer is now satisfied with the changes you have made and I have added his response in the section below. However, as Mikael has already pointed out, the editors think the article's acknowledgements section is not inline with the journal's general guidelines. "Acknowledgement sections should include (and be limited to) funding bodies, departments and individuals that assisted, and are willing to be publicly mentioned."

Furthermore, there are certain other issues that have been pointed out by other editors. WikiJournal of Medicine aims to substantially improve upon existing articles on Wikipedia. The submitted article is Nigeria centric, although paradoxically Lassa fever more broadly affects West Africa (the author does mention this, however mainly Nigeria is discussed). In addition other regions may have imported cases e.g. Sweden - https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/3/4/ofw198/2343991 (a comprehensive journal article can be expected to at least mention this given how global travel is ever increasing). Although the article works as a quick clinical guide it perhaps needs a bit more work. How does it improve upon, for example, this 2017 article on the topic - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28701331

I would be glad if you try to address the above issues.

Response

Dear Dr. Diptanshu Das,

RE: An overview of Lassa fever

Thank you for your review. I have updated the epidemiology from to a global point of view. I have also removed the acknowledgement section. Abdulmuttalib Musa Maibasira (discuss • contribs) 10:39, 11 January 2019 (UTC)Reply

External peer review 1

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion


Review by Sourav Maiti , MBBS, MD, DNB, IDCC, CAHO-certified trainer in Antimicrobial Stewardship, Certified Infection Control Practitioner (New York State Licensure) (ORCID iD 0000-0002-9982-598X)
These assessment comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

  1. The article is written in lucid language. Has incorporated much information in a short span.
  2. The diagnostic part and pathophysiology could be elaborated. However, it was found to be appropriate.
  3. The article gives general idea of the disease process, routes of transmission, treatment options.
  4. Reference no.13 has been mentioned in the 2nd paragraph, clinical manifestations and prognosis parts but it was NOT FOUND.
  5. It is an Bio-Safety Level 4 pathogen, so BSL-4 containment is necessary. This has to be stressed particularly in the diagnosis part.
  6. In the clinical manifestations part, under nervous system- "loudy sensorium" is mentioned. Probably "cloudy sensorium" is meant for.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Response

Dear Sourav Maiti

4. The references have be adjusted accordingly

5. BSL-4 containment was stressed

6. In clinical manifestations part. cloudy sensorium has been corrected to cloudy sensorium

Thanks



Review by Sourav Maiti ,
These assessment comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

The article focuses on an important issue that causes viral haemorrhagic fever by ssRNA virus. The case detection and diagnosis is challenging and need high clinical suspicion as well as meticulous infection control. The author has stressed upon these facts. Close differential diagnoses have been mentioned. There are other articles available in the literature. One strength of this article is that it has covered clinical picture and therapeutic part well. There is issue with Ribavirin under 5 years of age. This article mentions that. The article could be treated as ready-reckoner for the clinicians and for therapeutic dose calculations. Overall the article is written in a very lucid language, easily comprehensible to the busy clinicians. It deals with sound explanation to the pathogenesis particularly regarding the sepsis response. Regarding imported cases and epidemiology the article has tried to cover much in respect to the short span of description. After the necessary corrections, the article looks pretty good to me.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.


Response

Dear Dr. Sourav Maiti,

Thank you for your review and commendation. Abdulmuttalib Musa Maibasira (discuss • contribs) 10:39, 11 January 2019 (UTC)Reply

Editor's comment 2

Latest comment: 5 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion


Comments by Mikael Häggström, MD ,
These editorial comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

Dear Abdulmuttalib Musa Maibasira,

I would recommend that you really consider what level of religiousness to put to the Acknowledgement section. Here are some useful links:

Mikael Häggström (discuss • contribs) 19:25, 26 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Response

Dear Mikael Häggström

RE: An overview of Lassa fever

Thank you for your review. The acknowledgement section have been removed. Abdulmuttalib Musa Maibasira (discuss • contribs) 10:39, 11 January 2019 (UTC)Reply

External peer review 2

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion


Review by Morgan Brisse , University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
These assessment comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

1) Wording/ grammatical comments:

a) Establishing a clinical diagnosis at an early stage ... and for containment of potentially infectious specimens during virological and clinical testing. (clinico and pathological are redundant)
b) Though first described in the 1950s, the virus causing Lassa disease was not identified until 1969 when two missionary Nurses in Lassa town , Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria... (capitalize Lassa and Borno)
c) Patients who have come into contact with infected patients or equipment (i.e. via broken skin, mucous membrane or needle stick injuries) approximately within 2 days of exposure are given 800mg of ribavirin daily or 400mg twice daily for 10 days.
d) However, the CDC recommends placing high risk exposed individuals under medical surveillance for 21 days and treating presumptively with ribavirin if clinical evidence of viral hemorrhagic fever develops.
e) The mortality rate of pregnant women infected with Lassa fever is 80% and 95% experience fetal deaths.
f) Family members should avoid contact with blood and other bodily fluids while caring for sick persons and should observe safe burial practices.

2) More direct references are needed.

3) In the sentence ""Because of its similarities with other febrile diseases,"" ebola should be listed in addition to Malaria and typhoid.

4) In the sentence ""Lassa virus is a single stranded RNA virus,"" it should be included that it is also a negative-sense virus.

5) It should be clarified in the first paragraph of the Pathophysiology section that the virus is most commonly acquired through aerosols generated from the urine or feces of an infected rodent, followed by contaminated food or water.

6) In the sentence ""High serum virus titres, combined with...,"" it needs to be mentioned that an intact innate immune response is critical for protection against developing symptoms, which in turn attenuates humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Consequently, in the next sentence, Lassa fever is not as well known to lead to sepsis-like symptoms, cytokine storms or bacterial co-infection, so this should be clarified.

7) In the sentence ""However since both immunoglobulin classes are detected in viremic patients...,"" there are a number of references that can be cited detailing why anti-lassa antibodies may not be neutralizing (glycan residues shielding lassa glycoproteins, the inhibited innate immune response, etc.) These reasons can be summarized following this sentence.

8) In the sentence ""The main underlying feature of Lassa fever...,"" it should be clarified that liver damage is actually associated with the most amount of lassa fever cases- vascular damage and hemorrhaging tends to be associated more with the NW arenaviruses in South America.

9) In the frequency section, there are several cases of Lassa imported into the United States and one case of import into Ghana that can also be mentioned.

10) In the Outbreak in Nigeria section, the overall numbers from the 2018 outbreak according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease put the number of positive cases at 431 and the number of infected health care workers at 37 (https://www.ncdc.gov.ng/diseases/sitreps/?cat=5&name=An%20update%20of%20Lassa%20fever%20outbreak%20in%20Nigeria - 27 May 2018, Week 21)

11) In the Liver and kidney function tests part of the Lab Studies section, it can be cited and mentioned that serum liver enzymes have been found to be positive clinical markers

12) In the drug pharmacology section, it should be clarified that ribavirin is only effective when given in the early, non-specific portion of the infection.

13) In the Prognosis section, it should be clarified that the 87% of pregnant female mortality rate is during the third trimester.

Response

Dear Dr. Morgan Brisse,

Thank you for your review.

1) The grammatical comments have been addressed
2) More direct references have been added
3), 4), 5), 6), 7), 8), 9), 11), 12), 13)., Corrections and recommendation have been effected
10) In the epidemiology section, as you know Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria with new cases reported almost on daily based, that was the reason for the discrepancy in the figures, meanwhile it has been updated to match the current statistics

--Abdulmutalab Musa (discuss • contribs) 22:44, 9 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

External peer review 3

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion


Review by anonymous peer reviewer , MD, MALD
These assessment comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

Thank for for the invitation to review. This article provides a thorough overview of Lassa fever. I have a few recommendations in terms of additions:

1) Under epidemiology, author could consider noting that the true epidemiology of Lassa fever is hard to assess as many people with the disease are likely not tested given the similarities between the symptoms of Lassa fever and other endemic infections.

2) Under transmission, author should consider adding more references and perhaps include the recent metagenomic study in Science which supports the hypothesis that majority of the cases are zoonotic in nature. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6422/74

3) Under diagnosis, authors mention that testing for Lassa fever can only occur in BSL4 labs. This is inaccurate. BSL4 labs are used to study live viral culture of Lassa but clinical testing of Lassa fever can occur in BSL2 or glovebox as the virus is deactivated before PCR is run on it. Nigeria for example, does not have BSL4 labs but it's reference labs run PCR testing on inactivated viral samples.

4) Under diagnostics, author may also consider adding the difficulty of diagnosing Lassa Virus as the virus is very genetically diverse and hence the ability of nucleic acid amplification tests/PCRs to pick up the presence of the virus depends on what probe is used and tracing which genetic family of Lassa. Here is a wonderful review on it: https://jcm.asm.org/content/55/6/1629

Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your review.

1)Recommendation have been effected or clarified
2), 3), 4)., More direct references have been added

--Abdulmutalab Musa (discuss • contribs) 15:25, 27 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

Final Editor's comments


Comments by Rwatson1955 ,
These editorial comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

23 May 2019

Dear Abdulmutalab

We are nearly at the point of being able to publish the article but could you resolve the following for us and inform us when you have:

1. Where should references [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] be in the text? 2. The "Prevention and Control" section has no references currently were refs 44-48 meant to be there? Thanks Roger

Response

25 May 2019

Dear Roger,

Thanks for the review, the issues identified have been resolved. the first 2 was meant for the prevention and control section while the last three where initially part of the dosage information of ribavirin (which was removed). thanks once again.

Regards Musa Abdulmutalab

28 May 2019

Dear Abdulmutalab

One editor comments as follows:

I have done a very quick comparison with the Lassafever Wikipedia article. I notice that “cough” appears as a respiratory symptom, on Wikipedia, but it does not appear in main list in the article. In the article, it would be better to have clinical symptoms and signs instead of only clinical symptoms? I say this because hepatitis, pericarditis, etc. are technically not symptoms. Consider melana instead of malena.

Roger

Response

29 May 2019

Dear Roger,

1. Cough was mentioned in the introductory part of the clinical manifestation (........After few days, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,cough, and abdominal pain may follow. In severe cases systemic involvements occurs with the following:.......) Meanwhile as noted i have included it again as part of the respiratory symptoms.

Also the Clinical Manifestation section consist of both signs and symptoms with most of the signs stated as part of the section introduction.

2. The spelling for "melena" have been corrected. Thank you

Best Regards, Musa Abdulmutalab

30 May 2019 Dear Abdulmutalab The EiC has thoroughly edited your piece and I made one final change which was to remove the words 'symptoms' from the 'Manifestations' as one editor was not sure that these were all symptoms. Can you read through your article carefully and let us know if you are happy with it: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_Preprints/An_overview_of_Lassa_fever Roger

Response

1 June 2019

Dear Roger,

I have went through the edited article, i am Okay with it. Thanks

Regards

Abdulmutalab

Post-publication peer review 1

Comments below refer to the version of this article as published under doi:10.15347/wjm/2019.002
Add a post-publication review or comment

Latest comment: 5 years ago7 comments5 people in discussion
note: comments below refer to the published version of this article, doi:10.15347/wjm/2019.002

This text "In health care settings, staffs should always apply standard infection prevention and control precautions when caring for people, regardless of their presumed diagnosis. These include basic hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (to block splashes or other contact with infected materials)" was from HERE. Also found a few other instances which makes the article suspect. Doc James (discuss • contribs) 18:43, 18 June 2019 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for raising this. A check of the versions indicates that the problem material was introduced during the response to review. The author has been notified and I'll riase it with the editors as to how to proceed.
T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)talk 01:28, 19 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
I am reading the Wikipedia article w:Lassa fever. Was the article possibly partially adapted from Wikipedia? --George Ho (discuss • contribs) 07:58, 19 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
This text "Prevention of Lassa fever relies on prompting good “community hygiene” to discourage rodents from entering homes. Effective measures include storing grain and other foodstuffs in rodent–proof containers, disposing of garbage far from the home, maintaining clean households and keeping cats. Because Mastomys rats are so abundant in endemic areas, it is not possible to completely eliminate them from the environment but it is possible to control contact with them. Family members should avoid contact with blood and other bodily fluid while caring for sick persons and should observe safe burial practices"
seems to come from the WHO page on Lassa-fever.
This text "One possible mechanism involved in Lassa fever pathogenesis could be infection-triggered induction of uncontrolled cytokine expression similar to what is seen in sepsis."comes straight from here comparison link 11:21, 19 June 2019‎ (The preceding unsigned comment was added by 2605:a000:ee41:5400:415b:8d66:6764:a8d9 (talk • contribs) 11:21, 19 June 2019‎)
@Evolution and evolvability: The comparison link does not seem to be able to read the PMC text, so no issue comes up. This may have also been the case with initial submission, possibly because there were few references for the "Earwig's Copyvio Detector" to check? 2605:A000:EE41:5400:10B8:202C:CC8A:A59D (discuss) 01:26, 21 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for raising this. All this was as a result of lack of reference imediately after each sentence which i will effect immediately. Thank you once again--Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 15:06, 20 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
The issue is not one of citations, it's using copied text not in quotes. This WP link might help.(The preceding unsigned comment was added by 199.18.157.82 (talk • contribs) 15:44, 20 June 2019‎)
Thank you, i am currently on that, it should take effect once am done. thanks once again--Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 16:20, 20 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
I have made all necessary corrections and address all necessary issues, the result generated is (Violation unlikely). Though there are some unavoidable words like Center for disease control, standard precautions and others, which systems still flags it but with a confidence of less than 10% you can check it out. I was unaware of this rule [1] that was what lead to this, i thought proper citation and references cover the copyright issues. once again thank you. Again i am still addressing the organizational issues w:WP:MEDMOS. I will update the discussion as soon as am done.
--Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 18:59, 20 June 2019 (UTC)Reply


Comments by Roger Watson ,
These editorial comments were submitted on , and refer to this previous version of the article

  • Copyright violation being treated as good faith error on part of author (misunderstanding that an inline citation was sufficient attribution when using text from a CC-BY source, and that WHO was published CC0)
  • Editor actions being guided by COPE guideline, case studies (1, and 2) and Barbour et al 2017
  • Original DOI:10.15347/wjm/2019.002 points to version as first published. Any published corrected version would have new DOI
  • Intent to clearly mark the reasons why the original version was corrected on original and corrected versions

Peer reviewers being re-contacted to check, since significant changes.

Integration into Wikipedia

Latest comment: 5 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion
note: comments below refer to the published version of this article, doi:10.15347/wjm/2019.002

If this is desired the article in question needs to follow WP:MEDMOS. This one does not so is not really suitable even once the above issue is solved. Doc James (discuss • contribs) 18:45, 18 June 2019 (UTC)Reply

I have copied the text over to WikiJournal_Preprints/An_overview_of_Lassa_fever as a location to work on an update MEDMOS-compliant version. I'll also raise with the editors how to update the procedures to avoid similar situations. T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)talk 01:30, 19 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
Points below adapted from comment by Doc James:
  1. Fix stray capitalisation (e.g. "In Nigeria, From 1 January to 20 May 2018...")
  2. Check that refs are immediately after punctuation (e.g. "...of an infected rodent[4].")
  3. Organize section order per WP:MEDMOS
  4. Use easier to understand language (will also adress some of the copyright problems)
  5. Add a reference to every sentence (same ref can be used for multiple sentence in a row)
  6. User 'person' not 'patient'
T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)talk 05:33, 19 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
Response

I have made corrections based on the recommendation of the editors.
  1. Stray capitalization fixed
  2. References included after punctuations
  3. The section have been organized per WP:MEDMOS
  4. Some edits have been made the make language easier to understand
  5. Reference added to every sentence
  6. Person/individual used instead of patient
Thank you --Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 10:04, 24 June 2019 (UTC)Reply

Further comments

Latest comment: 5 years ago4 comments2 people in discussion

If I am allowed to make comment (and if I am not allowed, please remove it), many errors are noticeable. For example, a quick glance shows several issues:

  1. The accepted scientific name of the virus is Lassa mammarenavirus, and is nowhere mentioned.
  2. Use of dash (–) need checking throughout the text. [See Wikipedia:Hyphens and dashes]
  3. So many misuse of cap/small letter at sentence opening.
  4. Commas are missing in places where they normally should, e.g. many ; can be replaced.

Abstract

  1. “...single stranded...” should be “single-stranded”.
  2. “...Nurses in Lassa town Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria.” Caps error and missing comma.
  3. “...Ebola hemorrhagic fever etc.” Comma would help.

Pathophysiology

  1. “...negative sense...” is better as “negative-sense”.
  2. "...infected rodent[4]." Better is "...infected rodent.[4]"
  3. “Lassa fever” is clearly redundant in most sentences.

Frequency

  1. “Nevertheless, Lassa fever frequently infects...”. The fever does not infect, but the virus does.
  2. “...300,000 – 500,000 cases annually and about 5,000 deaths”. It might be “... 300,000–500,000 cases and about 5,000 deaths annually.”
  3. “...parts of West Africa, which includes...” Should it be “include”?
  4. If “There have been reports of Lassa fever in neighboring countries...” is true, then it is not endemic in the regions described in previous sentence.
  5. Confirmed single case in US is not an epidemiology.
  6. “There have been imported cases ... all of which where imported from...” Syntax problem.
  7. “Of these, 431 were confirmed positive, 10 are probable...” Grammar.
  8. “out of these” Cap error.

Causes and transmission

  1. "...infected materials." could be "...virus-contaminated materials." Materials are not infected.
  2. Difficult to read: "The presence of Lassa virus in seminal fluid definitely suggests increased risk of transmission through sexual intercourse but viral dose that the person is exposed to might not be enough to cause clinical infection often enough to contribute significantly to the burden of the clinical disease in these populations."

Diagnosis

  1. "Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction" is "Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction". [In two places]
  2. "...Ebola virus testing should be followed when testing for Lassa virus." Looks like a medical instruction.
  3. "class II or III biosafety cabinets", BSL-4, BSL-2. Why not use a consistent terminology?

Management

  1. "...antiviral nucleoside (guanosine)" may be actually "antiviral nucleoside (guanosine) analogue". They are a bit different.
  2. It is best to reserve "significantly/significant" for statistical results; e.g. the sentence "Therefore ribavirin significantly inhibits..." can be "Therefore ribavirin strongly/effectively inhibits viral replication by inhibiting DNA and translation by blocking RNA synthesis." [Significant is used in other place]
  3. "(e.g. Thelassemia major, sickle cell anemia (with hemoglobin level less than 8g/dl) etc.)" may be "(e.g. thalassemia major, sickle cell anemia with hemoglobin level less than 8 g/dl, etc.)
  4. "Fatal and no-fatal myocardial infarction..." can be "Fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction..."
  5. "...and/or..." is normally either and or or.
  6. "Ribafirin" in every sentence is redundant. [Subsection Ribavirin in pregnancy]
  7. "...excreted via sperm" may be "...secreted via..." Definitely not excreted.
  8. "Pregnancy testing should occur monthly during ribavirin therapy and for six months after therapy has stopped." can be "Pregnancy test needs to be done/performed every month during ribavirin therapy and continued for six months after completion of the therapy."

Chhandama (discuss • contribs) 11:54, 4 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

Response

Thanks for the comments

Abstract

1) Scientific name have been added, and hyphen added
2), 3)., Corrections effected

Pathophysiology

1), 2), 3)., Corrections effected

Frequency

1), 2), 3)., Recommendations effected
4) The statement was based on facts from CDC
5), The section also seeks to elucidate the frequency which informed the statement
6), 7), 8)., Recommendations effected

Causes and transmission

1), 2)., Corrected

Diagnosis

1) Recommendations effected
2) Its an instruction to ensure guidelines are abided by
3) Recommendation effected

Management

1) Statement clarified
2), 3), 4), 5), 6), 7), 8)., Recommendations effected

--Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 00:24, 6 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

Further comments to further comments

This is not a comprehensive revision or improvement, and several suggestions have not been addressed (but then note that I am not an authorised reviewer).

  1. "Lassa mammarenavirus" should be properly written as Lassa mammarenavirus — biological nomenclature is a rule.
  2. Use (–) for number range, (-) for minus and compound words, and not surrounded by spaces.
  3. Stray letter-case errors are still plenty.
  4. Comma and semicolon are still a problem.

Abstract

  1. “...single stranded...” should be “single-stranded”.
  2. “...Capillary leak...” should be "capillary leak".
  3. "2 missionary nurses in Lassa Village, Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria." can be "...two missionary nurses in Lassa, a village in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria."
  4. "Approximately 80% of infected persons are asymptomatic." is redundant, or better be merged into 2nd sentence of 1 para.
  5. "Rodents of Mastomys genus, often known as the Natal multimammate rat (or mouse) or common African rat are the reservoir of Lassa virus.[1] When the rodents become infected with Lassa virus, they infect humans through their urine and faeces, but remain unharmed." may be written (as only one species is involved) as " Natal multimammate mice (Mastomys natalensis) are the reservoirs of Lassa virus.[1] As natural hosts, the mice remain unharmed, but they can transmit the infection to humans through their urine and faeces."
  6. "...diseases, (e.g. malaria, typhoid, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, etc.), early..." may be "...diseases such as malaria, typhoid, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and dengue, early..."

Pathophysiology

  1. "...through direct contact and..." may be "...through direct contact of and..."
  2. "...urine and droppings, direct contact with these excreta, through touching soiled objects, eating contaminated food, or exposure to open cuts or sores, can lead to infection" may be "...urine and droppings so that direct contact with these excreta, through touching soiled objects, eating contaminated food, or exposure to open cuts or sore can lead to infection."
  3. "sexual transmission"? Or does it mean "sexually transmitted cases/transmission through sexual intercourse"?
  4. “Lassa fever/virus” is still very much redundant. Just for examples, in phrases like "...Due to limited data on Lassa fever...", "implicated in severe Lassa virus infections", "all cases of Lassa fever", they can be removed.
  5. "Two immunoglobulins (IgM and IgG antibody isotypes) are produced in Lassa virus infected person, because both can be present in viremic persons, and possibly only non-neutralizing antibodies are produced early in the infectious process, this makes the antibodies to remain present in a-lot of persons across West Africa, while late antibodies are protective because they neutralize the virus." hardly makes sense. What is " a-lot of persons?" Many people. Sentence is better split and simplified.

Frequency

  1. "...Lassa Fever is extremely difficult due to the non-specific clinical presentation; poor surveillance systems; sizeable human migration,..." may be "...Lassa fever is extremely difficult due to the non-specific clinical presentation, poor surveillance systems, sizeable human migration,..."
  2. "...10 are probable, 1495 negative." may be "...10 were probable, and 1495 were negative."
  3. "Of these, 526 were confirmed positive, 15 probable and 1693 negative (not a case)." may be "Of these, 526 were confirmed positive, 15 were probable and 1693 were negative."

Presentation

  1. "... disorientation, and coma," is having "and" in the wrong place.

Causes

  1. "It is the most prevalent mouse ..." may be "The mice are the most abundant rodents ...."
  2. "food stuffs" is "foodstuffs".
  3. "... infectious materials, airborne transmission is rare as there is no evidence to support that." may be "... virus-contaminated materials, but airborne infection is unlikely."
  4. Another "infectious materials" in the next sentence – materials are not infectious.

Diagnosis

  1. "... Lassa fever disease is usually " is "Lassa fever is usually".
  2. "... febrile diseases e.g. malaria, typhoid, influenza, relapsing fever, leptospirosis and other hemorrhagic fevers e.g. yellow fever, dengue, Marburg and Ebola." may be "... febrile diseases including malaria, typhoid, influenza, relapsing fever, leptospirosis and other hemorrhagic fevers such as yellow fever, dengue, Marburg and Ebola."
  3. "immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies or" is "immunoglobulin G (IgG) or".
  4. "...inactivated virus. it is very.." is "...inactivated virus. It is very helpful in areas where BSL4 laboratories..." Also describe/full name of BSL as this is its first appearance in the text.
  5. "Blood cultures to differentiate other pathogens (e.g. typhoid)[41] and blood smear to differentiate malaria parasite" may be "Blood cultures to differentiate from other pathogens (e.g. Salmonella enterica which causes typhoid)[41] and blood smear to differentiate from malaria parasite..." Note that typhoid is not the pathogen.
  6. The medical instruction should be toned down, e.g. "The WHO guidelines for the collection, storage, and handling of Ebola virus specimens testing can be followed while testing for Lassa virus." Don't give orders to the readers.
  7. "However, BSL-4 laboratories are limited worldwide, when not available, samples should be handled in..." may be "However, BSL-4 laboratories are limited in endemic countries, and in such areas, samples can be handled in..."
  8. "In West Africa false-negative results can occur if the probe or antibody pairs do not adequately bind to the target," may be "False negative results were reported when the probe or antibody pairs do not adequately bind to the target."
  9. "This can be due to the high diversity of nucleotide and amino acid of the Lassa virus isolates sequenced." may be "This could be due to the high diversity of nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the Lassa virus isolates."
  10. "For instance, a widely used RT-PCR assay in West Africa[44] was modified when when primer-template mismatch lead false negatives results." may be "For instance, a widely used RT-PCR assay was modified when primer-template mismatch was found to give false negative results."

Treatment

  1. It will help to mention any antipyretic drug.
  2. "... early initiation of Ribavirin" is "... early initiation of ribavirin".
  3. "(e.g. Thelassemia major, sickle cell anemia (with hemoglobin level less than 8g/dl) etc.)" may be "(e.g. thalassemia major and sickle cell anemia with hemoglobin level less than 8 g/dl)". Please note the subtle spelling and space.
  4. "... ribavirin induced anemia" is "... ribavirin-induced anemia".
  5. "Individuals with known cardiac compromise should have electrocardiography monitored..." can be "Individuals with known cardiac compromise will require electrocardiography monitored..."

Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)

  1. " This was the proposal of Vito et al. in 2010..." may be " This is after the proposal of Vito et al. in 2010..."

Prognosis

  1. "Mortality rate during epidemics can be as high as 50%." may be most suitable for the first sentence; e.g. the paragraph can be "Mortality rate due to Lassa fever during epidemics can be as high as 50%. About 15–20% of those hospitalized die.[57] The mortality rates among pregnant women are 80% and 87% at second and third trimester respectively, while 95% of them experience fetal deaths."

Prevention

  1. "Initiating good “community hygiene” which will prevent rodents from entering homes." Why not in proper language for readers like "Initiating good “community hygiene” is an effective way to prevent carrier rodents from entering homes.
  2. "While caring for sick persons, caregivers should prevent contact with all bodily fluid. The government and stakeholder should also ensure safe burial process are sustained." may be "It is important for caregivers and medical service personnel to avoid direct contact with all bodily fluid. Burial process and places are also to be arranged cautiously." Then the next sentence "Clinical staff..." can be removed, as the information is included.

Other issues

  1. Citations in the abstract is not normally necessary, but I cannot judge on the journal's policy.
  2. There is a stray information in the summary: "Lassa fever was first elucidated in the 1950s, but the virus was not recognized until 1969...", which is not in the text. As a matter of fact there seems to be three nurses who were infected during that epidemic, and the virus was identified from one of them. A missing section on the rather captivating history is regretful.
  3. Now I will be honest. The biggest issue is that information on the biology of the virus is missing, while quite a stress is put on the drug. The structure, cellular invasion and reproduction of the virus would define the actual nature of the disease; and without these, the very aim of this article as "an overview" is hugely undermined.

Chhandama (discuss • contribs) 02:52, 13 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

Response

  1. I have went through the article and effected all the recommended corrections and suggestions
  2. The article is aimed at giving brief overview of Lassa fever with more emphasis on prevention and management and thus less attention was payed to the cellular virology. Meanwhile a brief history and brief virology have been added to the article. Thank you

--Laamiido (discuss • contribs) 16:18, 14 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

Caps, typos, etc.

Latest comment: 5 years ago2 comments1 person in discussion

I think to help more the more experienced editors stay on target with the meatier, health-specific concerns of the article, I am going to do a passthrough to try to eliminate spelling, grammar, capitalization and other minor issues so you don’t have to worry about them anymore. I think many of the items raised above are valid and I will incorporate them as I go, as long as they don’t significantly change the meaning of the text. If anyone disagrees with the changes, please feel free to undo them as you see fit. Regards, Sherylock (discuss • contribs) 03:09, 15 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

I've completed a runthrough of the body of the article, and I've tried to incorporate AMA style where I've noticed it (such as with leaving out the punctuation for eg). My changes took care of some of the issues raised previously, but the author will still need to go through and examine the other proposed edits. Sherylock (discuss • contribs) 02:28, 6 August 2019 (UTC)Reply


Post-publication peer review 2

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