Death toll from Lassa fever has risen to 70 while confirmed number of cases “significantly” increased across 26 ststes in Nigeria.
According to the Lassa Fever weekly situation report released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), a total of 109 cases were confirmed out of 482 suspected cases from 3rd to 9th February (week 06). This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 472 in 2020.
“The number of suspected cases has significantly increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2019”, the report read.
In the reporting week, eight deaths were recorded and the confirmed cases were reported from 19 states to include; Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Delta, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Enugu, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Rivers, Katsina, Benue, Adamawa, Sokoto and Oyo states.
In total for 2020, 26 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 92 Local Government Areas.
Of all confirmed cases, ,74 percent are from three states; 35 percent from Edo, 33 percent from Ondo and 6 percent from Ebonyi state.
According to the report, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) for 2020 which is 14.8 percent is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2019 which was 18.7 percent.
Four new Health Care Workers were affected in Ondo, Delta and Kaduna states in the reporting week.
Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja
