Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) don release new report on Lassa fever, and e no be good news. For 2024, Nigeria don record 1,025 confirmed cases of Lassa fever, and 174 people don die from the disease across 28 states.
The report wey NCDC release for week 40 show say the case fatality rate still dey 17.0 per cent, just like last year. But there be small decrease in confirmed cases; from nine cases in week 39 to seven cases in the current week.
Ondo, Edo, and Bauchi states be the worst hit, with 68 per cent of the reported cases coming from these states. The remaining 32 per cent spread across 25 other states. The number of suspected cases for 2024 don rise to 8,484, compared to 7,621 for the same period last year.
No health worker affected in the reporting week, according to NCDC. The most affected age group still be people between 21-30 years. To manage the outbreak, the National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Incident Management System don activate at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to coordinate responses nationwide.
Challenges in tackling Lassa fever include late presentation of cases, high treatment costs wey lead to poor health-seeking behaviour, poor environmental sanitation, and low awareness in high-burden communities.
