121 cases of death recorded from lassa faver

The National Centre for Disease Control has confirmed that two persons have died of Lassa fever in Bauchi and Taraba states.

It said the country had lost 121 lives to the disease since January 1.

In its latest report on the spread and management of the disease, NCDC said 16 new cases were recorded in Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Taraba, and Plateau states between March 25 and 31.

The centre said, “From January 1 to March 31, 2019, a total of 2,034 suspected cases have been reported from 21 states. Of these, 526 were confirmed positive, 15 probable and 1,693 negative. Since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 121 deaths in confirmed cases. Case fatality ratio in confirmed cases is 23 per cent.

“Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Taraba, FCT, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, Oyo, Kebbi and Cross River have recorded at least one confirmed case across 81 local government areas.

“A total of 6, 489 contacts have been identified from 20 states, of this number, 1,443 cases are being followed up, 4,983 cases have completed 21 days follow up while 112 symptomatic contacts have been identified.”

The centre also said one health care worker was affected by the disease in Plateau, bringing the total of health workers affected since its outbreak to 17 in seven states.

The centre said 29 patients were being managed at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre, Owo, and Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. More patients are also being managed in treatment centres in Bauchi, Plateau and Taraba states.

It said, “Multi-sectoral health national rapid response teams from NCDC, Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Federal Ministry of Environment have been deployed in Taraba and Bauchi states.”