Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

NCDC confirms Lassa fever incident in Enugu

By Chukwuma Muanya
09 August 2018   |   2:59 am
Lassa Fever incident has been reported in Enugu State, as Edo, Ondo record five new cases. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu confirmed this yesterday to The Guardian. He said the latest outbreak, which started late last year has continued, bringing the number of states so…

Enugu PHOTO: Enugu State Government

Lassa Fever incident has been reported in Enugu State, as Edo, Ondo record five new cases.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu confirmed this yesterday to The Guardian.

He said the latest outbreak, which started late last year has continued, bringing the number of states so far affected since January 1, 2018 to 22.

He said: “Yes, I can confirm that Enugu has recorded its first case. The state commissioner for health had announced it on Monday.

You know Enugu and Ebonyi states have a common boundary, and Ebonyi is one of the 21 states to have recorded Lassa fever cases this year.

“We are concerned and have sent in a special team to help in containing the situation. Nigeria is endemic to Lassa fever.”

Ihekweazu urged the people to maintain optimal hygiene levels, ensure that the environment is clean and bushes cleared.

“Nigerians should also make sure that they do not harbour rats,” he said.

Also, latest figures from the NCDC showed that from July 23 to 29, 2018, five confirmed cases were reported in Edo and Ondo states, with one death.

According to the report, from January 1 to July 29, 2018, a total of 2,291 suspected cases were reported from 21states.

Of these, 472 were confirmed positive, 10 are probable, 1,809 negative (not a case).

Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there had been 121 deaths in confirmed cases and 10 in probable cases.

The report put a Case Fatality Rate in confirmed cases at 25.6 per cent.

Before Enugu State, 21 states had recorded at least one confirmed case across 71 local councils in Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau, Lagos, Taraba and Delta states.

Others are Osun, Rivers, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Gombe, Ekiti, Kaduna, Abia and Adamawa states

17 states have exited the active phase of the outbreak, while Edo and Ondo states remains active, the report added.

Meanwhile, death toll in Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reportedly hit 36.

Officials have confirmed nine deaths so far, and believe that the virus, which is one of the most lethal pathogens in existence, was responsible for the incidents.

A mass vaccination campaign has started to stem the outbreak in the east of the country, which comes two weeks after the DRC declared the end of another one.

Virologists feared that the previous outbreak in northwest DRC was ‘reminiscent’ of the 2014 Ebola pandemic, which decimated West Africa and killed 11,000 people.

The DRC’s Ministry of Public Health yesterday tweeted that there had been 36 Ebola deaths, even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) admitted 34 cases.

0 Comments