Nigeria has recorded 12 new confirmed cases and one death from Lassa fever in three states of the federation in one week, from April 29 to May 5.
The Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) revealed this in its recent status report published on its website.
It stated that the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 14 in week 17 to 12, adding that one health worker was affected in the reporting week.
The report further revealed that people between the ages of 31 and 40 are predominantly affected by the disease.
Affected States
The report indicated that 28 states recorded at least one confirmed case in 124 local government areas in 2024.
He further stated that 63 per cent of all confirmed cases were from the three states of Ondo, Edo and Bauchi, while 37 per cent were reported from 25 states.
Of the 63 percent of these confirmed cases, Ondo accounted for 24 percent, Edo for 22 percent and Bauchi for 17 percent.
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He added that the National Lassa Fever Multi-Sector and Multi-Partner Incident Management System has been activated to coordinate the response at all levels at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Challenges
The NCDC, in the report, highlighted some of its challenges in fighting Lassa fever. These challenges include late presentation of cases leading to increased infant mortality rate and poor health care seeking behavior due to high cost of treatment and clinical management of the disease.
Others are the poor environmental sanitation conditions and lack of awareness observed in high-burden communities.
Lassa fever
Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease that is transmitted to humans through contact with food or household items contaminated by infected rodents or contaminated people.
Its symptoms include fever, headache, sore throat, general body weakness, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, chest pain and, in severe cases, unexplained bleeding from the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and other areas. body openings.