Nigeria recorded 6 new deaths in the last week of January 2022 which brings the death toll to 40 persons in the country after more infected patients died due to lassa fever.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed this in its latest situation report on the management of the outbreak of the disease in the country.
Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever transmitted by rats.
“Cumulatively from week 1 to week 4, 2022, 40 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 19.0% which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (22.2%),” it said in the report published this week.
Data from the report indicate that six new deaths were recorded in Week 4 covering January 24 to January 30.
The agency added that 229 suspected cases were reported from 16 local government areas across five states last week, but only 42 of them were confirmed.
This brings the total number of infections confirmed since the beginning of the year to 211 out of the 981 suspected cases reported from 43 local government areas across 14 states.
“In Week 4, the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 74 in week 3, 2022 to 42 cases. These were reported from Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Enugu and Delta States,” it said.
“In total for 2022, 14 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 43 Local Government Areas. Of all confirmed cases, 82 per cent are from Ondo (30 per cent), Edo (27 per cent), and Bauchi (25 per cent) States.
“The predominant age-group affected is 21-30 years (Range:1 to 80 years, Median Age: 30 years). The male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.8. The number of suspected cases has increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2021.”
