A young German woman has died of a dangerous tropical disease after causing a national health scare.

The woman contracted Lassa fever during a trip to West Africa and the authorities have tried to contact all the passengers she travelled with on her return to Germany earlier this month.

About fifty people who shared the young woman's plane have come forward, but no new cases of Lassa fever have been detected. The fever - a viral infection which causes severe and often fatal internal bleeding - was named after the Nigerian town where it first appeared thirty years ago.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service