Lassa fever, meningitic claims 26 lives infects 88 others in Nigeria

Lassa fever and cerebro spinal meningitis (CSM) have claimed 26 lives and infected 88 others in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in its report captioned Week 04 (January 21 – 27, 2019), 77 new cases of the fever were recorded in 13 states and Abuja.

A breakdown itemised the tallies as Edo (24); Ondo (28); Ebonyi (five); Bauchi (three); Plateau (five); Taraba (three); Gombe (one); Kaduna (one); Kwara (one); FCT (one); Benue (two), Rivers (one); Kogi (one) and Enugu (one). The centre noted that there were 11 new deaths in Edo; two in Ondo; one for Benue and one also in Rivers. Others were Plateau (two); Taraba (one) and Bauchi (one). According to the NCDC, from January 1 to 27 this year, 538 suspected cases of the ailment were reported in 16 states, with 213 incidents confirmed positive, two probable and 325 negative.

The disease centre noted that since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there had been 42 deaths.

It said 16 states (Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Taraba, FCT, Adamawa and Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Benue, Rivers Kogi and Enugu) had recorded at least an incident.