Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC2025218 (Oral 101) | Published: 14 Aug 2025
Énagnon Junior Juvénal Prince Honvou1,&, Akpénè Ruth Esperance Deha1, Énagnon Parsifal Marie Alexandre Logbo1, Jeannot Fréjus Zinsou1,2,3, Francis Houeha1, Josiane Honkpehedji1,2, Sherif Adegnika1,2, Selidji Todagbé Agnandji1,2,3, Anton Camacho4, Suzanne Penfold5, Anges Yadouleton6, Ayola Akim Adegnika1,2,3
1Fondation pour la Recherche Scientifique (FORS), Cotonou, Bénin, 2Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, Lambaréné, Gabon, 3Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Wilhelmstrasse 27, 72074, Tübingen, Germany, 4Epicentre, Paris, France, 5P95 Epidemiology and Pharmacovigilance, Leuven, Belgium, 6Laboratoire des Fièvres Hémorragiques Virales, Cotonou, Benin
&Corresponding author: Énagnon Honvou, Fondation pour la Recherche Scientifique (FORS), Cotonou, Benin, Email: honvoujuvenal@gmail.com
Received: 31 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 14 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Lassa fever, Incidence, seroprevalence, sensorineural hearing deficit
©Énagnon Junior Juvénal Prince Honvou et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Énagnon Junior Juvénal Prince Honvou et al., Incidence of disease and seroprevalence of infection due to Lassa Virus in Benin. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00101. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00101
Lassa fever (LF) is a re-emerging zoonotic infectious disease caused by an Old-World arenavirus, Lassa virus (LASV) and endemic in West Africa. So far, less is known about the disease and epidemiological data are still scarce. Herein we estimated the incidence of disease and the seroprevalence of the infection due to LASV in the Northern part of Benin.
Between July,2021 and December,2023, a multisite prospective cohort study was conducted in the districts of Parakou, Tchaourou and Natitingou. Households were randomly selected and followed up for 18 months in LF disease cohort and LASV infection cohort. Questionnaires were administered and blood samples were collected from selected household inhabitants to estimate the immunoglobulin G (IgG) LASV seroprevalence. LF disease cohort participants were drawn to test for active LASV infection in case of acute febrile. LASV infection cohort participants were asked for a blood sample every six months to assess LASV seroprevalence (IgG).
A total of 5,129 participants were recruited in the disease cohort, from which 1,130 participants were subsequently enrolled in the infection cohort. The median age was 18 years (SD=18.04) for the disease cohort, 19 years (SD=18.47) for the infection cohort and the sex ratio (H/F) was 0.90 (2430/2699). At Baseline, global positive IgGseroprevalence was 2.21% (99/4488). In disease cohort, 02 LF cases were detected RT-PCR positive. All detected cases survived after the treatment with Ribavirin, and one had sensorineural hearing deficit as sequelae. In the infection cohort, at 6- and 18-months follow-up, IgG seroprevalence were 1.41% (13/919) to 1.02% (8/783) respectively.
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