Cases of Lassa fever in the country have increased to 929 as of September 25, 2022, the latest situation report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has revealed.
This is just as the death toll hits 172 so far in the year.
The report revealed that the confirmed cases for week 38 were higher than the confirmed cases recorded in the same period in 2021, which were 379.
Lassa fever is an acute viral illness and a viral haemorrhagic fever. The causative agent is a single-stranded RNA virus in the family Arenaviridae, the Lassa virus.
The report partly read, “Cumulatively from week 1 to week 38, 2022, 172 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate of 18.5 per cent which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (23.0 per cent).
“In total for 2022, 25 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 102 local government areas.Of all confirmed cases, 71 per cent are from Ondo (32 per cent), Edo (26 per cent), and Bauchi (13 per cent) states.”
Also, the NCDC said monkeypox confirmed cases are now 318 as of September 4, 2022.
The centre noted that seven persons had succumbed to the disease so far in the year.
The 35th-week situation report also showed that there are 815 suspected cases of the virus in the country.
The report showed that no fewer than 41 new confirmed cases were recorded in the week under review in the country.
Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic infectious disease (i.e. an infection transmitted from animals to humans) that occurs sporadically, primarily in remote villages of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. It is caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.
“From January 1 to September 4, 2022, Nigeria has recorded 815 suspected cases with 318 confirmed cases (210 male, 108 female) from 30 states – Lagos (63), Ondo (24), Abia (22), Bayelsa (19), Rivers (19), Imo (17), Edo (16), Adamawa (15), Delta (15), Ogun (12), FCT (11), Anambra (10), Nasarawa (9), Plateau (7), Oyo (6), Taraba (5), Kwara (5), Kano (5), Gombe (5), Ebonyi (5), Katsina (5), Cross River (4), Benue (4), Borno (3), Kogi (3), Akwa Ibom (3), Osun (2), Niger (1), Bauchi (1), and Kaduna (1).”
“Seven associated deaths were recorded from seven states in 2022 – Delta (1), Lagos (1), Ondo (1) and Akwa Ibom (1), Kogi (1), Taraba (1) and Imo (1). CFR is 2.2 per cent.”