Rummaging in the darkness of a tiny mud and thatch home in eastern Sierra Leone, ecologist James Koninga plucks a metal rat trap from under a collapsed bedframe.
The 62-year-old belongs to a group of researchers tracking the deadly Lassa fever, a viral haemorrhagic illness endemic in several West African countries and transmitted by infected rats.
Koninga knows all too well what is at stake — he spent a gruelling 20 days in hospital with a Lassa-induced fever, headache and diarrhoea as a young researcher 30 years ago.
“I thought I was going away, I was going to die,” he said.
Ten years ago, the haemorrhagic Ebola virus devastated this region, killing over 11,000 people across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Sierra Leone has not recorded an Ebola case since the outbreak ended in 2016, thanks partly to a vaccine rollout.
In Kenema district, an early Ebola epicentre, scientists are using the lessons learned a decade ago to try to stop Lassa fever in its tracks.
With an overall fatality rate of one per cent, Lassa is nowhere near as deadly as Ebola, which kills on average 50 per cent of sufferers, according to the World Health Organization.
But one in five Lassa infections can result in severe illness with a fatality rate of 15 percent.
While cases have largely plateaued in Sierra Leone, researchers are seeing a spread beyond traditional Lassa hotspots.
There is no licensed vaccine and only limited treatment, with the scars of Ebola preventing many from seeking early life-saving help.
– Living with rats –
Monitoring the rodent population is crucial in remote villages like Mapuma, where some 20 houses lie enveloped by dense forest.
“Rats burrow inside the houses for shelter,” explained Koninga, donning a face shield and gloves.
Humans usually contract Lassa virus after having contact with the urine, saliva or droppings of infected rats.
“If people come in from the bush with cuts on them and lie on the bed, they could be infected.”
Proximity to the forest, rudimentary mud construction, and uncovered grain and water storage make the dwellings “five-star hotels” for rats, said Lansana Kanneh, 58, field supervisor at the region’s Kenema Government Hospital (KGH).
“Food is scarce for these people so sometimes they even eat the food that has been partially eaten by the rodent,” he added.
Trappers can find up to 20 rats per day in some villages.
After identifying if the rodents are the Lassa-carrying Mastomys variety, samples are collected for analysis.
The rats then receive an injection that prevents viral transmission before being released.
Lassa virus infects between 100,000 and 300,000 people annually in West Africa, killing roughly 5,000, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, the figures likely underestimate the true scale given surveillance challenges.
Admissions to the Lassa unit at KGH — Sierra Leone’s only dedicated treatment centre -– have declined in the past decade.
Patients normally arrive in the 14-bed isolation ward during the dry season from November to May, but this once-predictable pattern is increasingly uncertain.
– ‘Lassa blood’ –
“Now we see cases year-round,” said Donald Grant, head of the KGH Lassa fever programme.
The team are also noticing Lassa beyond traditionally endemic zones, with Grant suspecting an improvement in testing as well as deforestation driving rodents into closer contact with humans.
Over the past decade, KGH has also seen an alarming uptick in Lassa patient mortality, which now stands at over 50 per cent.
“We’ve seen a lot of these cases coming in in their late stages,” said Kanneh.
“Sometimes they only spend 24 to 48 hours in the hospital, and they die.”
Rapid detection is the key to survival, but non-specific febrile symptoms mean Lassa is commonly misdiagnosed as malaria, cholera or typhoid.
Hours-long journeys on dirt roads prevent many from seeking treatment.
As does the trauma from Ebola, which killed some 4,000 Sierra Leoneans.
“The community people thought that Ebola was brought by the health workers,” Kanneh said, explaining that a lingering mistrust contributed to reduced admissions.
A KGH team raises awareness in local communities about seeking rapid help and ensuring good domestic hygiene.
It is a message well-received by Musa Mosoh, a 53-year-old Lassa survivor who lost seven family members to the illness.
As the morning rain fell in his village of Panguma — a Lassa red zone — Mosoh recalled how his family had faced stigma from the community.
“Now… people have got the understanding we are not from Lassa blood, it’s just a sickness.”
Mosoh tells those with a continuous fever or headache to go straight to the hospital, and even keeps cats to repel any virus-carrying rodents.
Grant, the doctor, is hopeful of a vaccine in the next few years.
Participants in Nigeria and Liberia are currently being given the first-ever Lassa vaccine to reach phase two trials — the midway point of testing in humans.
But Grant still urges caution.
Ebola “taught us a lesson that we need not wait until that critical moment that it overwhelms all of us,” he said.
“We need to act now.”
AFP
Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña has been impeached and placed under house arrest.
Peña was arrested on Friday minutes after lawmakers, including from his own party, voted to remove him from office due to a crisis triggered by the collapse of Ueno Bank earlier this week.
He had offered to step down on Thursday, but the move to impeach him and charge him with misconduct rather than accept his resignation meant he was stripped of his lifetime Senate seat and the immunity granted to ex-presidents.
Peña, who until last year held shares in the company that owned the bank, has denied any wrongdoing.
The demise of the digital bank has left more than half of Paraguay’s population without access to their savings after it was seized by Paraguay’s central bank.
An estimated three million depositors remain unable to access their savings and pensions prompting widespread protests particularly in the capital, Asunción.
The impeachment charges that led to Peña’s removal alleged he had conflicts of interest, manipulated regulatory oversight, diverted pension funds, and participated in an institutional cover-up involving the central bank.
Peña is due to be questioned today (Saturday) over allegations of breach of trust, influence peddling, and misappropriation of funds, prosecutor Silvia Margarita Gonzalez Vester said.
Peña’s impeachment passed with 44 out of 45 senators voting in favour of it. One lawmaker was absent.
Afterwards, senate president Basilio Núñez said Peña was found guilty of “dereliction of duty”.
Paraguay’s Vice-President Pedro Alliana was then sworn in as interim President.
“Compatriots who are now going through a difficult time as a result of the financial collapse will be fully compensated,” said Alliana, who will serve as President until 2028.
Pedro Alliana takes the oath of office as interim President
Senator Rafael Filizzola said: “We are facing the biggest corruption scandal in our democratic history – a tremendous blow to the state, to private citizens, and to the country’s credibility and image.”
Analysts say Peña is likely to now be prosecuted over the bank’s collapse.
His defence lawyer Ricardo Preda described the allegations as a “reckless accusation” that was “irresponsible and opportunistic”.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Peña said that he was sorry and that “it was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me”.
A Kenyan court has sentenced the leader of a doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in prison for murdering 191 people, all but one of them children.
Alongside 27 others, Mackenzie was found guilty of the murders for instructing members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could “meet Jesus”.
Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for ordering his followers to fast to death, in one of Kenya’s deadliest episodes of religious extremism.
“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law,” the judge added.
The self-styled pastor was arrested in 2023 after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast. The sprawling investigation into the cases shocked Kenya and drew international attention.
Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors in the court in Mombasa had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie because of the gravity of the crimes. Capital punishment has not been carried out in Kenya since 1987.
The prosecutors also cited what they described as Mackenzie’s lack of remorse for the crimes. They requested life sentences for his co-accused.
Before the hearing began on Friday morning, Francis Wanje, who lost eight relatives in Shakahola forest, including two grandchildren, told the BBC’s Newsday programme that he was “hoping for… a sentence which will match his [Mackenzie’s] deeds in the forest”.
Mackenzie and the co-accused have formally pleaded for mercy and asked for leniency from the court.
Before their conviction on 19 October, they had all pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted that nobody was forced to die.
Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”, Justice Diana Mochache said as she delivered her eight-hour judgement last month.
Those who opposed Mackenzie’s teachings were beaten to death.
One of his co-accused said he had told his followers that anyone who “resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows”.
Burials inside the forest where the cult was based were called “weddings” and those who died “were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus” the judge said.
The judge found that the deaths arose from an organised system, including religious teachings and directives that compelled followers to follow the deadly fasting.
Post-mortem results showed the cause of deaths to be starvation for most victims, while others died from suffocation, strangulation or head injuries.
The cause of death could not be determined for some, with their bodies having decomposed, while others died soon after their rescue as they were so emaciated.
Comedian Russell Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and star of several Hollywood movies, faces a lengthy jail term after being convicted in a London court on Thursday of raping a woman and sexually assaulting three more.
Prosecutors said Brand, the former husband of US pop singer Katy Perry, was obsessed with sex and used women to satisfy his own desires. One victim said he treated her “like an animal”.
Funny and charming when he wanted to be, but also ruthless, calculating and manipulative, the 51-year-old, who starred in “Get Him to the Greek” and “Arthur”, was interested only in getting what he wanted from women, prosecutors told jurors at Southwark Crown Court.
“The evidence showed Brand to be a calculated sexual predator, using his growing fame and power to create situations in which he could pursue women sexually, regardless of what they wanted,” senior Crown prosecutor David Roberts said outside court.
Brand now faces jail and potentially further action as police said he was still under investigation for two other alleged rapes, one involving a then 16-year-old girl.
BRAND DENIED THE CHARGES
Brand, known for his loquacious manner and flamboyant appearance, had denied all the charges and ever having non-consensual sex, saying the incidents, which dated back more than 20 years, had either been consensual, reinvented or re-imagined.
He acknowledged in evidence he had dedicated a lot of his life to “reckless philandering and idiocy” but said sexual consent was fundamental.
But, following a four-week trial, the jury found him guilty of rape and three sexual assaults committed between 2004 and 2009. He was acquitted of two other rape charges and an attempted indecent assault.
Judge Joel Bennathan said Brand, who was refused bail, would be sentenced on Monday and faced a lengthy prison term.
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