The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that eighty-five people in the country died from Lassa fever within six weeks.
The agency disclosed this in its situation report published on Monday, February 20, 2023.
It also disclosed that 68 more cases of Lassa fever were confirmed while the disease killed 15 persons within a week.
It further said, the number of suspected cases increased compared with the number of cases it reported same period in 2022.
The suspected cases of the infection for week six in 2022 were 1,631 while the suspected for week six in 2023 were 2,244.
NCDC lamented the late presentation of cases leading to increase in the case fatality rate.
It observed that in high-burden communities, poor environmental sanitation conditions and high cost of clinical management invariably contribute to the prevalence of the deadly disease.
In six weeks, the report noted that the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 106 in week 5 2023 to 68 cases, reported from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Taraba, Ebonyi, Gombe, Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau States.
74 per cent of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from Ondo, Edo, and Bauchi states while 26 per cent were reported from six states with confirmed Lassa fever cases.
Of the 74 per cent confirmed cases, Ondo reported 36, Edo 31, and Bauchi 7 percentage respectively.
The predominant age group affected was 21-30 years while the male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.9.
