Nigeria has recorded an increase in the number of deaths resulting from Lassa Fever since the beginning of the year.
This is as the number of confirmed cases also increase.
According to week five situation report on the disease released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday, as at the time of compilation, there were 365 positive cases and 47 deaths reported from 23 states across the country.
The report showed that the number of states reporting at least a case of the disease rose from 19 in the previous week to 23.
The states are Edo, Ondo, Kogi, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Plateau, Cross River, Delta, Anambra, Osun, Ogun, Abia, Taraba, FCT, Gombe, Enugu and Kebbi.
However, Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi, remain the states with the most affected cases.
On the bright side, the number of new deaths in the reporting week reduced to six as against 19 recorded in the previous week.
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New confirmed cases increased from 95 cases in week four to 104 cases, according to NCDC.
The report showed that the new cases were reported from 15 states (Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Delta, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, FCT, Gombe, Enugu, Kebbi and Anambra.
Also, one new health care worker was affected in Delta State. Five health workers had been reported among the dead from the disease in the previous weeks from Kano (3), Taraba (1) and Borno (1).
According to the NCDC report, from the beginning of the year 2020, Nigeria has reported 47 deaths from the outbreak, with a case fatality rate of 12.9 per cent.
Also, the number of suspected cases has significantly increased when compared to that reported for the same period in 2019.
“In total for 2020, 23 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 74 Local Government Areas. The predominant age-group affected is 21-30 years and the male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:1.2,” it NCDC report stated.
