Lassa fever kills 168 in 25 states in 8 months

Lassa fever has claimed 168 lives in 25 states since the beginning of this year, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said. The affected states are: Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Kogi, Ebonyi, Benue, Taraba, Gombe, Oyo, Enugu, Nasarawa, Plateau, Anambra, Kaduna, Delta, FCT, Cross River, Imo, Adamawa, Niger, Kebbi, Lagos, Kano, Katsina and Rivers, […]

Lassa fever has claimed 168 lives in 25 states since the beginning of this year, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said.

The affected states are: Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Kogi, Ebonyi, Benue, Taraba, Gombe, Oyo, Enugu, Nasarawa, Plateau, Anambra, Kaduna, Delta, FCT, Cross River, Imo, Adamawa, Niger, Kebbi, Lagos, Kano, Katsina and Rivers, Delta, FCT, Cross River, Imo, Adamawa, Niger, Kebbi, Lagos, Kano, Katsina and Rivers.

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NCDC, in its situation report late Saturday night, said 889 confirmed cases were recorded out of 6304 suspected cases during the period. 

It said: “Cumulatively from week 1 to week 32, 2022, 168 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 18.9 per cent which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (23.4 per cent). 

“In total for 2022, 25 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 101 Local Government Areas.” 

The report said of all confirmed cases, 70 per cent are from Ondo (31 per cent), Edo (26 per cent), and Bauchi (13 per cent) states.

The report also revealed that in Week 32 (between August 8 and 14), the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 13 in Week 31 (August 1 to 7), 2022 to nine cases. 

“These were reported from Ondo, Edo, and Enugu States. The number of suspected cases has increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2021,” it said.

The report said no new healthcare worker was affected in the reporting week 32, adding that the National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group (TWG) continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels.