Three people have died from Lassa fever and 13 others afflicted in five states across the country in the last two weeks. According to latest figures from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) published yesterday, the three new deaths occurred, one each in Plateau, Edo and Gombe states.

The report contained “in the reporting Week 48, from November 26 to December 2, 2018, said 13 new confirmed cases were reported from Edo (two), Ondo (eight) Gombe (one), Plateau (one) and Kano (one).The NCDC noted that from January 1 to December 2, 2018, a total of 3,229 suspected cases have been reported and of these, 581 were confirmed positive, 17 probable, 2,631 negative (not a case).

The centre noted that since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there had been 147 deaths in confirmed cases and 17 in probable cases, with Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in confirmed cases at 25.3 per cent. NCDC further disclosed that 23 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 92 local government areas of Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau and Lagos states.

Others are Taraba, Delta, Osun, Rivers, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Gombe, Ekiti, Kaduna, Abia, Adamawa, Enugu and Kano).It added that five states; Edo, Ondo, Plateau, Gombe and Kano States are in active phase of the outbreak. It noted that in the reporting week 48, no new healthcare worker was affected, but 44 health care workers had been affected since the onset of the outbreak in seven states.

The states are Ebonyi (16), Edo (15), Ondo (eight), Kogi (two), Nasarawa (one), Taraba (one) and Abia (one), with 10 deaths across Ebonyi (five), Kogi (one), Abia (one), Ondo (two) and Edo (one).The NCDC said 83 per cent of all confirmed cases are from Edo (46 per cent), Ondo (24 per cent) and Ebonyi (13 per cent), while 15 patients are currently being managed at various medical facilities across the nation.

The facilities are the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) treatment Centre (four); Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo (10); and Yargaye Isolation Centre along Wudil Road, Kano State (one). According to the NCDC, a total of 9193 contacts have been identified from 23 states, of which 303 (3.3 per cent) are currently being followed up.8,760 (95.3 per cent) have completed 21 days follow-up, while 15 (0.2 per cent) were lost to follow up.115 (1.3 per cent) symptomatic contacts have been identified, of which 36 (0.5 per cent) have tested positive from five states.

The states are Edo -20, Ondo-eight, Ebonyi-three, Kogi -three, Bauchi-one and Adamawa-one).To further address the situation, the NCDC has planned a Lassa fever international conference for January 16 to 17, 2019 and Lassa fever national multi-partner, multi-agency Technical Working Group (TWG) to coordinate response activities at all levels.

•Sourced from The Guardian report

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