Nigeria Records 85 Fatalities  from Lassa Fever, Says NCDC

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that 85 persons have so far lost their  lives from Lassa Fever disease within six weeks of this year.

It said that a total of 531 confirmed cases of Lassa Fever were also recorded within the same period in the country.

An update on the epidemic control and prevention exercise issued by the NCDC yesterday  showed that 446 patients were treated at the hospitals while 28 health workers were affected by Lassa Fever disease this year.

The highlights of the statistics showed that, “In week 6, the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 106 in week 5 2023 to 68 cases”.

According to the record, there were reported cases from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Taraba, Ebonyi, Gombe, Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau
states.

The report said: “Cumulatively from week 1 to week 6, 2023, 85 deaths have been reported with a case  fatality rate (CFR) of 16.0 per cent which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2022(16.5 per cent).

“In total for 2023, 20 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 79 Local  Government Areas.

“Seventy-four (74 per cent) of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from these three  states (Ondo, Edo, and Bauchi) while 26 percent were reported from 6 states with confirmed  Lassa fever cases. Of the 74 percent confirmed cases, Ondo reported 36 percent, Edo 31 percent and Bauchi seven per cent”.

NCDC said that the predominant age group affected by Lassa fever  was 21-30 years, while  the male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.9.

It also said that the number of suspected cases increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2022.

It added that four new Healthcare workers were affected in the reporting week 6

The Centre further said that it had already activated the National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Emergency Operations Centre   to coordinate the response activities at all levels.