39 New Cases Of Lassa Fever Reported In 6 States

Thirty-nine new confirmed cases of Lassa fever have been reported from six states of Edo, Ondo, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Taraba, and Kogi, with eight new deaths in Edo, Ondo, and Kogi.

According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, the overall, thirty-three states and the FCT have reported a total of one thousand, four hundred and forty-seven suspected cases since the onset of the 2019 outbreak with ninety-three deaths in confirmed cases.

It also said at least, twenty-one states have recorded one confirmed case across sixty-six local government areas.

According to the NCDC situation report, in the reporting week 09, no new health care worker was affected but a total of fifteen health care workers have been infected since the onset of the outbreak in seven states with one death in Enugu, sixty-nine patients are currently being managed at various treatment centres across the country.

NCDC also said a total of four thousand, nine hundred and two contacts have been identified from nineteen states.

However, many Nigerians keep wondering why it is so hard to terminate this outbreak despite huge resources being deployed by government and other partners.

Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, explained that the primary source of infection, which is through rat that usually comes in contact with humans during planting season, has made it impossible to eradicate or prevent the outbreak.

Dr Ipaye identified preparedness as one of the strategies to respond to the epidemic response, stressing the need for Nigeria to start early communication and information provision for people, particularly farmers in rural communities who displace these multimammate rats when they clear bushes which serve as their natural habitation.

He noted that when these rats are displaced from their natural habitations, they will come close to man and live.

And when they come close to man, they contaminate food items and, when the food items are contaminated, people consume them and get infected.

The health Commissioner stressed the need for people to maintain good environmental hygiene, adding that every fever that exceeds three days after treating malaria should be investigated.