[Is MBSL-level ward needed for the treatment of viral hemorrhagic diseases and pest?].
The recently revised Japanese Law on Infectious Diseases designates pest, Lassa, Marburg, Ebola and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic diseases should be treated in an MBSL-level ward and that it should be constructed in each prefecture. However, pest can be treated with several antibiotics easily in an ordinary infectious disease ward. Lassa, Marburg and Ebola virus diseases are endemic in tropical Africa and only Lassa fever was imported into Japan in 1987. The probability of its importation to each prefecture is calculated on an assumption that a Lassa fever patient may be imported into Japan once in 10 years. Its incidence was calculated in comparison with the incidence of imported malaria from the African continent. Its probability P is calculated as follows. Corrected number of imported malaria patients from the African continent per year for each prefecture CN is divided by 445. 445 is the number of imported malaria patients from the African continent in ten years. Finally 445/CN is the number of years needed for each prefecture to import one case of Lassa fever. The results indicate that it takes 37 years for Metropolitan Tokyo where the largest number of malaria patients are imported annually. Other prefectures need more than 100 to 10,000 years, with an average of 1,017 years, for importation of one patient of Lassa fever. It is concluded that construction of an MBSL-level ward in each prefecture is unnecessary. The reports that the above mentioned viral hemorrhagic diseases can be treated safely in the ordinary infectious disease ward should be carefully reviewed.
Ebisawa
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D006482:Hemorrhagic Fevers, Viral / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D010356:Patient Isolation; D010930:Plague / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*