Lassa fever death toll hits 114 with 365 cases in 19 states

The latest Lassa fever outbreak in country has claimed four more lives, caused 12 confirmed new cases and 265 fresh suspected infections in one week.

An update released yesterday by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), showed that between March 5-11, 2018, 12 new confirmed cases were recorded from seven states: Edo (three), Ondo (two), Bauchi (two), Ebonyi (one), Plateau (one), Taraba (one), Ekiti (one) and Kaduna (one) with four new deaths, three in confirmed cases from Plateau, Edo and Kaduna and one probable death in Ondo.

According to the NCDC, from January 1 to March 11, 2018, a total of 1,386 suspected cases: of these, 365 are confirmed positive, nine are probable, 988 are negative (not a case) and 24 are awaiting laboratory results (pending)

The NCDC in the latest update signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/National Coordinator, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 114 deaths; 81 in positive-confirmed cases, nine in probable cases and 24 in negative cases. However, Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in confirmed and probable cases increased from 23.9 to 24 per cent.

According to the report, 19 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 55 Local council areas (Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau, Lagos, Taraba, Delta, Osun, Rivers, FCT, Gombe, Ekiti and Kaduna).

The NCDC said Kaduna State reported one new confirmed case for the first time in this outbreak as seven states have exited the active phase of the outbreak with 12 states still active.