At least 102 Nigerians died from Lassa fever infections in the 52 weeks of 2021 to the first week of 2022 from 38 Local Government Areas in 17 States of the country, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.
CDC announced this in a Lassa Fever Situation Report, EpiWeek52:27December–2January,2021, describing the situation as a disturbing trend. The affected states of the federation have been alerted, it said.
Lassa fever, a deadly infection, is caused by fluids discharge from rats when human consume food contaminated by such fluids.
“Cumulatively from week 1 to week 52, 2021, 102 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate, CFR, of 20.0 percent which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2020 (20.7 percent). According to the NCDC, in total for 2021, 17 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 68 Local Government Areas,” the Centre said.
The Centre listed the affected states as Edo (212), Ondo (175), Bauchi (39), Taraba (22), Ebonyi (18), Plateau (9), Benue (8), Kaduna (8), Enugu (5), Nasarawa (3), Kogi (3), FCT (3), Cross River (1), Imo (1), Anambra (1), Delta (1), and Abia (1).
I n week 52 (December 27, 2021, to January 2, 2022), it reported that three new deaths were recorded, as the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 29 in week 51, 2021 to 28 cases. “These were reported from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Kaduna and Taraba States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It said that three states Edo (42 per cent), Ondo (34 per cent), and Bauchi (eight per cent), accounted for 84 per cent of all the cases.
It also listed Edo with 15 deaths, 2,725 suspected cases and 212 confirmed cases as the most affected state. It is followed by Ondo, 47 deaths, 1,006 suspected cases and 175 confirmed cases, and Bauchi, 12, 164 cases and 39 deaths.
Other most affected states include Taraba, Ebonyi, Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Enugu and Nasarawa.The predominant age group affected is 21-30 years while the male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 1 : 0.9 even as the number of suspected cases decreased compared to the figure reported for the same period in 2020.
