One patient has died from a confirmed case of Lassa fever in the UK.
The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed that a person in England has sadly passed away after contracting the virus.
This brings the total cases of the virus in the UK to three.
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The statement said: "We are contacting the individuals who have had close contact with the cases prior to confirmation of their infection, to provide appropriate assessment, support and advice. The risk to the general public remains very low."
A Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: "We confirm the sad death of a patient at our trust, who had confirmed Lassa fever. We send our deepest condolences to their family at this difficult time.
"We will continue to support the patient's family and our staff and are working closely with colleagues from the UK Health Security Agency to undertake a robust contact-tracing exercise."
Prior to the cases, there have only ever been a total of eight cases of Lassa fever in the UK since 1980 and there was no evidence of onward transmission from any of these cases.
All cases are within the same family and have recently returned from West Africa where an endemic is confirmed in some areas.
What is Lassa fever and how contagious is it?
The virus isn't airborne like Covid-19 and isn't as contagious.
Gov.uk explains that Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus.
People usually become infected with Lassa virus through exposure to food or household items contaminated with urine or faeces of infected rats – present in a number of West African countries where the disease is endemic.
The virus can also be spread through infected bodily fluids.
Dr Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA, said: "We can confirm that 2 cases of Lassa fever have been identified in England, and a further probable case is under investigation. The cases are within the same family and are linked to recent travel to West Africa.
"Cases of Lassa fever are rare in the UK and it does not spread easily between people."
She adds: "The overall risk to the public is very low. We are contacting the individuals who have had close contact with the cases prior to confirmation of their infection, to provide appropriate assessment, support and advice.
"UKHSA and the NHS have well established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be reinforced."
