Nigeria Records 1,447 Lassa Fever Cases Between January – March

On Mar 9, 2019

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced a total of 1,447 suspected cases of lassa fever from 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from January 1 to March 3.

According to a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja,NCDC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, reiterated that 39 new cases of Lassa fever between February 25 and March 3 in six states.

The CEO said, from the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 93 deaths in confirmed cases. Case fatality ratio in confirmed cases is 22.1per cent.

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The NCDC boss said that Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, Oyo, Kebbi, Cross River states and FCT, had recorded at least one confirmed case in 66 Local Government Areas.

He said that 420 of the figure were confirmed positive, 15 probable and 939 negative.

He said that 4,902 people suspected to have had contact with those infected, had been identified in 19 states.

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Speaking further ,henoted that in reporting week 09, no new health care worker was affected.

Ihekweazu said that 15 healthcare workers had been affected since the onset of the outbreak in seven states.

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The NCDC said that 69 patients were hospitalised at designated centres for managing the illness: 34 in Irrua; 16 in Owo; two in Abakiliki; two in Bauchi, five in Plateau; seven in Taraba; one in Gombe; one in Kaduna, and one in Kebbi.

Ihekweazu said that 1,926 of the suspected contacts were being followed up; another 2,923 had completed the mandatory 21 days of follow up, to be sure they did not show any symptoms.

National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels.

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He noted that four persons were lost to follow up, and 80 symptomatic contacts were identified, of which 49 tested positive.

The CEO said that multi-sectoral one health national rapid response teams, including NCDC, NFELTP, Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Federal Ministry of Environment, were deployed to Ondo, Edo, Taraba andEbonyi.