Lassa fever death toll rises to 121- NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced that 16 new cases of Lassa fever have been confirmed from five states in the country, while the death toll has risen to121.

In its latest Situation Report on the disease for Week 13 which covers March 25 to 31, the NCDC disclosed that a total of 2,034 suspected cases have been reported from 21 states across the country from January 1 to March 31, 2019.

A breakdown of the figure, according to Channels Television, showed that six cases were confirmed in Edo and four in Ondo, while two cases were confirmed in Bauchi, Taraba, and Plateau States. One new death was recorded in Bauchi and another in Taraba State.

According to the NCDC, out of the new cases, 526 were confirmed positive, 15 probable and 1,693 negative (not a case).

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Since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 121 deaths in confirmed cases while the case fatality ratio in confirmed cases is 23.0%. 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have recorded at least one confirmed case of the disease across 81 local government areas.

The states are Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, Oyo, Kebbi and Cross River.

In the reporting week 13, one new healthcare worker was affected in Plateau State, bringing the number of healthcare workers infected since the onset of the outbreak to 17. Seven of them were infected in Edo, three in Ondo, two in Ebonyi, and one each in Enugu, Rivers, Bauchi, Benue, and Plateau States.

Similarly, 29 patients are currently being managed at various treatment centres across the country: Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) treatment Centre – 10, Federal Medical Centre Owo – nine, Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki – three, Bauchi – two, Plateau – three, and Taraba – two.

The NCDC said a total of 6,489 contacts have been identified from 20 States. Daystar donates N10million to UNHCR to support IDPs Of these, 1,443 (22.2%) are being followed up, 4,983 (76.8%) have completed 21 days follow up, while eight (0.1%) were lost to follow up. 112 (1.7%) symptomatic contacts have also been identified, of which 55 (1.0%) have tested positive.

The agency revealed that the multi-sectoral one health national rapid response teams have been deployed to Taraba and Bauchi States. It added that the national Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), has continued to coordinate the response activities at all levels.

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