Lassa fever death toll rises to 119

A total of 119 persons have been killed in the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria, according to  the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The agency says a total of 376 confirmed and 1,495 suspected cases have been recorded so far.

“In the reporting Week 11 (March 12-18, 2018) nine new confirmed cases were recorded from four states: Edo (two), Ondo (two), Bauchi (one), and Taraba (four) with three new deaths in confirmed cases from Taraba Edo and Ebonyi,” said a statement signed by Chikwe Ihekweazu, chief executive officer of NCDC.

“From 1st January to 18th March 2018, a total of 1,495 suspected cases. Of these, 376 confirmed positive, nine are probable, 1,084 are negative (not a case) and 26 are awaiting laboratory results (pending).

“Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 119 deaths: 86 in positive-confirmed cases, nine in probable cases and 24 in negative cases. Case Fatality Rate in confirmed and probable cases is 24.7 percent.”

The NCDC said 19 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 56 local government areas.

The states are Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau, Lagos, Taraba, Delta, Osun, Rivers, FCT, Gombe, Ekiti and Kaduna.

The report also said 17 health care workers have been affected since the onset of the outbreak.

The update noted that “83 percent of all confirmed cases are from Edo (43 percent), Ondo (24 percent) and Ebonyi (16 percent) states and 38 cases are currently under treatment in treatment centres across six states (Edo (10), Ondo (eight), Ebonyi (four), Bauchi (10), Taraba (five) and Plateau (one).

“A total of 3,675 contacts have been identified from 19 states of which 805 are currently being followed up, 2863 have completed 21 days follow up while seven were lost follow up and 23 of the 59 symptomatic contacts have tested positive from three states (Edo-12, Ondo-seven, Ebonyi- three and Kogi -one)”.