Yellow Fever Killed 76 in Bauchi, Delta, Enugu in First Two Weeks of November

By Rebecca Ejifoma

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has revealed that from November 1 to 11 of this year, 76 people died from Yellow Fever in Bauchi, Delta, and Enugu States.

In the three states, 222 suspected cases, and 19 confirmed cases were reported, as disclosed by the NCDC in its Yellow Fever Situation reports, as recorded on between November 1 and 11 this year.

While 74 suspected cases with 35 deaths were reported in Delta, 70 suspected cases with 33 deaths were recorded in Enugu while 78 suspected cases with eight deaths were recorded in Bauchi state.

From the preliminary investigations, three samples from Delta were reported on November 6; one sample from Enugu on November 6; and eight samples from Bauchi on November 8 were confirmed as yellow fever with PCR at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Gaduwa.

According to the NCDC, most of the cases are males aged one to 55 years. They presented with fever, headache, fatigue, jaundice, abdominal pain, vomiting with or without blood, epistaxis, blood in stools/urine, convulsion, and unconsciousness

It added that on November 7, the National Yellow fever Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated to coordinate response activities across all affected states

As noted in the report, the State Epidemiology Team in the affected states is leading the response with support from NCDC, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and WHO.

The NDCD hinted: “National RRTs from NCDC have been deployed to support response activities in Deita and Enugu States.”

“As at epi-week 41 this year, the centre emphasised that Nigeria has reported eight confirmed cases of yellow fever from seven Local Government Areas (LGAs) across four states, with no death among confirmed cases.”

A multi-agency yellow fever technical working group coordinated by NCDC has been coordinating yellow fever prevention, preparedness, and response activities.