Lassa fever: 59 die, 358 cases recorded in 2022 so far–NCDC
The Federal Government of Nigeria announced that as at week 6 of its Lassa Fever Situation Report, it has recorded 1631 suspected cases of the disease, 358 confirmed cases and 59 confirmed deaths.
This was disclosed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in a report on Wednesday.
This comes as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed last week that a patient died of the fever.
What the NCDC is saying
The NCDC said that as at week 6, the number of new confirmed cases increased from 58 in week 5, 2022 to 77 cases.
“These were reported from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Taraba, Enugu, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, and Niger States and the FCT,” it said.
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It added that cumulatively from week 1 to week 6, 59 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate of 16.5% which is lower than the case fatality rate for the same period in 2021 (22.9%)
“19 states have recorded at least one confirmed cases across 65 local government areas,” it said, adding that of all confirmed cases, 73% are from Ondo (32%), Edo (23%) and Bauchi(18%).
“Seven new healthcare workers affected from Bauchi, Ondo and Edo states in the reporting week 6,” it stated, adding that the National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Emergency Coordination Centre was activated to coordinate response activities at all levels.
What you should know
The UK Government had confirmed 3 cases of Lassa fever, with at least one casualty, the UK Health Security Agency said.
All three cases were linked to recent travel in West Africa as Bloomberg reported that many frontline workers at the hospital were reportedly told to isolate themselves after being identified as potential contacts.
