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 hemorrhagic illness endemic in several West African countries and transmitted by infected rats. Koninga knows all too well what is at stake—he spent a grueling 20 days in hospital with a Lassa-induced fever, headache and diarrhea as a young researcher 30 years ago. “I thought I was Read More