Lassa Fever Kills Forty In Ten States – Health Minister

Forty people have died in Nigeria in a suspected
outbreak of Lassa fever in 10 states across the
country, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said Friday.
"The total number (of suspected cases) reported is 86
and 40 deaths, with a mortality rate of 43.2 percent,"
Adewole told a news conference in the capital, Abuja.
The minister said that so far, laboratory tests have
confirmed that 22 of the 86 suspected cases were
Lassa fever and results were expected on the
remainder.

Seven of the affected states are in the north —
Bauchi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Plateau and
Gombe — while the remaining three are in the south
— Rivers, Edo and Oyo — he added.
The first case of the disease was recorded last
November in Bauchi state. Cases were then reported
in Kano and elsewhere.
According to the WHO, Lassa fever is an acute
haemorrhagic illness which belongs to the
arenarvirus family of viruses, which also includes the
Ebola-like Marburg virus.
People with Lassa fever do not display symptoms in
80 percent of cases but it can cause serious
symptoms and death in the remainder.
The virus, which is endemic in rodents in west Africa,
is transmitted to humans by contact with food or
household items contaminated with the animals'
faeces and urine.
Person-to-person contact is also possible through
bodily fluids, particularly in hospitals when adequate
infection control measures are not taken.
The number of Lassa fever infections in west Africa
every year is between 100,000 to 300,000, with about
5,000 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Adewole said recorded cases of Lassa fever in
Nigeria peaked in 2012 at 1,723 with 112 fatalities but
rates have declined since then.
In the latest outbreak, the minister said "most of the
cases that we recorded are not through person-to-
person contact" but the number of deaths was
"unusual".
He expressed concern about disease notification
systems, particularly in Niger state, where "unusual"
deaths in August were not reported for up to four
months.
Authorities in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city of
more than 20 million people, on Thursday alerted
residents on the need to observe proper hygiene to
curb the spread of the disease.
Lagos state, in the southwest, is some 80 kilometres
(50 miles) from Oyo state, where suspected cases
have been reported.