Lassa fever kills three, eight new cases confirmed in five states

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed eight new cases of Lassa fever and three deaths in five states, within one week.

 

According to the latest update of situation report by the agency, for week 14 (April 02-08, 2018), “eight new confirmed cases were recorded from five States – Edo (three), Ondo (two), Ebonyi (one), Plateau (one), and Taraba (one) with three new deaths in confirmed cases from Ondo (one), Ebonyi (one) Taraba (one) and a backlog of an old death in a confirmed case from Kogi state.

 

“From 1st January to 8th April 2018, a total of 1,781 suspected cases have been reported from 20 states. Of these, 408 were confirmed positive, nine are probable, 1,351 are negative (not a case) and 13 are awaiting laboratory results (pending).

 

“Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 101 deaths in confirmed cases, nine in probable cases. Case Fatality Ratio in confirmed cases is 24.8 per cent,” say the report.

 

Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness, transmitted to humans through contact with food or household items contaminated by infected rodents. Person-to-person transmission can also occur, particularly in hospital environment in the absence of adequate infection control measures.

The agency further disclosed at least one confirmed case have been recorded in Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau, Lagos, Taraba, Delta, Osun, Rivers, FCT, Gombe, Ekiti, Kaduna and Abia making it twenty  states across 57 Local Government Areas.

 

 “Nine states have exited the active phase of the outbreak while 11 states remain active,” say the report.

 

In the reporting week 14, one new healthcare worker was affected in Ebonyi state with one death. “Twenty-seven health care workers have been affected since the onset of the outbreak in seven states Ebonyi (16), Nasarawa (one), Kogi (two), Benue (one), Ondo (three), Edo (three) and Abia (one) with seven deaths in Ebonyi (four), Kogi (one) and Abia (one).

 

81 per cent of all confirmed cases are from Edo (42 per cent) Ondo (23 per cent) and Ebonyi (16 per cent) states; and that fifteen cases are currently being managed in treatment centres across six states -Edo (four), Ebonyi (five), Ondo (four), Plateau (one), and Osun (one).

 

 The agency noted that a total of 4,480 contacts have been identified from 20 states and of these 658 (14.8 per cent) are currently being followed up, 3,815 (85 per cent) have completed 21 days follow up while seven (0.2 per cent) were lost follow up. 74 symptomatic contacts have been identified, of which 28 (38%) have tested positive from five states (Edo-13, Ondo-8, Ebonyi-3, Kogi -3 and Bauchi-1)

 

“National Lassa fever multi-partner multi-agency Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels” it added.