--- title: Lassa Fever: Man Dies of Rare African Virus in New Jersey description: He had recently returned from traveling in Liberia canonical: https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-26T15:22:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:21.763Z article:section: Health og:title: Man Dies of Rare Lassa Fever in New Jersey og:description: He had recently returned from traveling in Liberia og:url: https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Dies of Rare Lassa Fever in New Jersey twitter:description: He had recently returned from traveling in Liberia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man Dies of Rare Lassa Fever in New Jersey ## Video: Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014 [Watch (HLS stream): Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/laroqNbt.m3u8) (10:47)  _Published 2014-12-10. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and health workers work every day to treat and contain the outbreak in the hot zone_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 26, 2015 3:22 PM UTC  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 26, 2015 3:22 PM UTC A man died of a rare African virus in New Jersey Monday after recently returning from Liberia, officials [confirmed. ](http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0525-lassa.html) The man died of Lassa fever, a virus that causes hemorrhagic symptoms but is very different from Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Lassa fever is only fatal for 1% of those who are infected, while Ebola can be fatal for 70% of those infected without treatment. Lassa fever is also much harder to spread from person to person (it’s usually picked up from rodent droppings). About 100,000 to 300,000 Lassa fever cases are reported in West Africa every year, resulting in about 5,000 deaths. The man with Lassa fever had arrived at JFK airport from Liberia on May 17, and went to a hospital the following day complaining of fever, sore throat and tiredness, officials said. At that time, he did not say he had been traveling in West Africa, and he was sent home the same day. On May 21 his symptoms worsened and he returned to the hospital, at which point he was transferred to a facility equipped to deal with viral hemorrhagic fevers. The patient was in “appropriate isolation” when he died Monday evening. The CDC is working to compile a list of people who may have encountered the patient while he was sick, and they are monitoring close contacts for 21 days to see if they develop the virus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/"},"headline":"Man Dies of Rare Lassa Fever in New Jersey","datePublished":"2015-05-26T15:22:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:21.763Z","description":"He had recently returned from traveling in Liberia","url":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/","keywords":["global health","New Jersey","Africa","Virus","ebola","Liberia","West Africa","diseases"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/global-health/","name":"global health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/","name":"Man Dies of Rare Lassa Fever in New Jersey"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014","description":"Hundreds of doctors, nurses and health workers work every day to treat and contain the outbreak in the hot zone","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/laroqNbt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-10T11:46:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/laroqNbt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/","duration":"PT10M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3896155/lassa-fever-death-new-jersey/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```