Nigeria’s death toll from Lassa fever has risen to 127 after four more infected patients lost the battle to the disease. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed this in its latest situation report on the management of the outbreak of the disease in the country.
“Cumulatively from week 1 to week 12, 2022, 127 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 18.6% which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (21.3%),” said the agency in the report covering March 21 to 27. The Lassa virus is transmitted by infected multi-mammate rats and humans become infected from direct contact with the urine and faeces of the rat carrying the virus.
It is an acute viral illness and a viral haemorrhagic fever contracted by touching soiled objects, eating contaminated food, or exposure to open cuts or sores. Data from the report shows that 224 suspected cases were logged from 14 local government areas across seven states in the reporting week, but only 22 of them were confirmed.
As a result, Nigeria has confirmed a total of 681 infections out of the 3,542 suspected cases reported from 92 local government areas across 23 states, since the beginning of the year.
