LASSA FEVER: DEATH TOLL HITS 86, WITH 1,121 CASES RECORDED IN 18 STATES

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – There seems to be no end in sight for Lassa fever which has continued to decimate many areas across the nation with current death toll put at 86 in 18 states across the federation based on statistics released by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control.

The statistics which are for week 9 since the onslaught of the disease indicates that there are so far 1, 121 cases recorded in the 18 states across the federation.

“Of this, 361 cases have been classified as 353 confirmed cases, 8 probable cases with 86 deaths (78 in Lab confirmed and 8 in probable) recorded giving a case fatality rate (CFR) of 23.8%.

According to the centre, with the recent escalation of the current Lassa fever outbreak to Level 3, more resources have been dedicated to response activities with the goal of controlling the outbreak and ensuring that identified strategies are sustainable.

“Edo, Ondo and Ebonyi states account for 85% of all confirmed cases. By implication, these are the high burden or hotspot states and the focus is to ensure that State-specific interventions are employed to control the outbreak”, the centre said.