Lassa Fever Spreads To 16 States, NCDC Reports 109 Cases And 20 Deaths In One Week

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has confirmed 109 new cases of lassa fever and 20 deaths across 16 states in one week (26 February to 3 March).

NCDC disclosed this in its latest situation report on its website for week nine of 2024.

The report showed an increase in the confirmed cases from 96 in week eight to 109 in week nine, with eight new healthcare workers affected in the reporting week.

From week one to nine, the country recorded 682 confirmed cases and 128 deaths with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 18.8 percent, the report revealed.

The affected States are: Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Benue, Ebonyi, Kogi, Kaduna, Taraba, Enugu, Delta, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Rivers, Ogun, and Oyo states.

The report noted that 62 percent of all the confirmed cases were reported from Ondo, Edo and Bauchi while 38 percent were from 24 states with confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the centre said that the National Lassa Fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Incident Management System has been activated to coordinate response at all levels at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).