110 nigerians of Lassa fever – NCDC- Okoro Obruche David

The Lassa fever death toll in the country has now reached 110 as scientists desperately try to contain the ‘unusually severe’ outbreak.

Fatalities from the killer disease in the country have rocketed by 22 per cent in the space of just one week, according to the latest official figures.

It comes just days after the UK Government announced that it had deployed a rapid response team to combat Lassa fever.

Global health chiefs say this is the worst outbreak of the deadly bug to have ever rocked Nigeria, with 1,121 suspected cases since January.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control confirmed this in an update on the disease it released on Tuesday, saying that the death toll in Lassa fever outbreak in country had hit 110, while 35 new cases had been recorded in five states.

According to the update, Lassa fever had claimed 20 more persons and 40 fresh suspected infections in 18 states within one week in 2018.

The NCDC showed that between February 26 and March 4, 2018, 19 new confirmed cases were recorded in Edo, five in Ondo, one in Bauchi, nine in Ebonyi and one in Plateau State.

It added that seven new deaths were confirmed from Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi states.

According to the report, from January 1 to March 4, 2018, there were 1,121 suspected cases.

“Of these, 353 are confirmed positive, eight are probable, 723 are negative and 37 are awaiting laboratory results as 18 states are active: (Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Imo, Plateau, Lagos, Taraba, Delta, Osun, Rivers, FCT, Gombe and Ekiti).

“Four health care workers have so far died this year from the infection, which can cause bleeding from the vagina. Two of these occurred last week.

“The Head of the NCDC’s Lassa Fever Emergency Operations Centre,  Elsie Ilori, described the situation as ‘overwhelming’ last week, “ the report added.

The NCDC also noted that since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 110 deaths: 78 in positive-confirmed cases, eight in probable cases and 24 in negative cases with Case Fatality Rate in confirmed and probable cases at 23.8 per cent.