Lassa Fever: Nigeria records six new deaths as confirmed cases increase

Nigeria has registered an upsurge in the number of Lassa Fever cases since the beginning of the year, with 365 positive cases and 47 deaths reported from 23 states across the country.

According to week five situation report on the disease released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday, the number of states reporting at least a case of the disease rose to 23 from 19 in the previous week.

The 23 states are Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Adamawa, Cross River, Delta, Osun, Ogun, Abia, Taraba, Plateau, FCT, Gombe, Enugu, Kebbi and Anambra.

Three states, Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi, remain the states with the most affected cases.


However, there was a reduction in the number of new deaths (six) in the reporting week as compared to the previous week where 19 deaths were reported.

In the data released by NCDC, new confirmed cases have increased from 95 cases in week four to 104 cases.

These were reported from 15 states (Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Delta, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, FCT, Gombe, Enugu, Kebbi and Anambra).

Also, one new health care worker was affected in Delta State. Five health workers had been reported among the dead from the disease in the previous weeks from Kano (3), Taraba (1) and Borno (1).

NCDC said, cumulatively from the beginning of the year, Nigeria has reported 47 deaths from the outbreak, with a case fatality rate of 12.9 per cent.

Also, the number of suspected cases has significantly increased when compared to that reported for the same period in 2019.

“In total for 2020, 23 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 74 Local Government Areas. The predominant age-group affected is 21-30 years and the male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:1.2,” it stated.