Lasser fever death toll hits 40, 86 cases reported-FG

The Federal Government on Friday in Abuja said the mortality rate of the re-emergence of Lassa fever has increased to 43.2 per cent and has claimed the lives of five more people.
With the development, the death toll has now hit 40 as against 35 that was
recorded on Thursday, thereby bringing the total number of reported cases to 86.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, at
a news conference, also stated that two more states, namely Plateau and Gombe, had been affected by the disease, which is in its sixth
week. Meanwhile, laboratories have confirmed 17 cases, which are indicative of a new outbreak of the disease as 80 per cent of human infections are asymptomatic.
Adewole said, “The total number of reported cases, so far, is 86 while there have been 40 deaths, with a mortality rate of 43.2 per cent.
Our laboratories have confirmed 17 cases, indicative of a new roundtrip of Lassa fever outbreak.”
According to him, modalities have been put in place to curb the spread of the disease, which can also occur and be transmitted in health
facilities where infection prevention and control
practices are not observed.
The measures, according to the Minister,
include “immediate release of adequate
quantities of Ribavirin, the specific antiviral
drug for Lassa fever to all the affected states
for prompt and adequate treatment of cases.”
He said, “We have deployed rapid response
teams from the ministry to all the affected
states to assist in investigating and verifying
the cases, as well as tracing contacts.
Clinicians and relevant health workers had
been sensitised and mobilised in areas of
patient management and care in the affected
states, as well as intensifying awareness
creation on the signs and symptoms, including
preventive measures such as general
hygiene.”
Adewole said Nigeria has the capability to
diagnose Lassa fever as all reported cases
were confirmed in the nation’s laboratories.
“However, due to the non-specific nature of
Lassa fever symptoms and varied
presentations, clinical diagnosis is often
difficult and delayed, especially in the early
course of the disease outbreak,” he added.
He, therefore, advised the public to “avoid
contact with rodents/rats as well as food/
objects contaminated with rats’ secretion and
excretions.”
He urged the public to “also avoid drying food
in the open and along the roadside.”
He said the World Health Organisation had
been notified of the confirmed cases while
calling on health care workers, who are
expected to ensure that all patients are treated
freely, to immediately contact the state
epidemiologists in the state ministry of health
or call the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
and the Federal Ministry of Health.
Lassa fever is an acute febrile illness, with
bleeding and death in severe cases, caused by
its virus, which has an incubation period of six
to two days.
About 80 per cent of human infections are
asymptomatic; the remaining cases have
severe multi-system disease, where the virus
affects several organs in the body, such as the
liver, spleen and kidneys.
The onset of the disease is usually gradual,
starting with fever, general weakness, and
malaise followed by headache, sore throat,
muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting,
diarrhoea, cough, and bleeding from mouth,
nose, vagina or gastrointestinal tract, and low
blood pressure.
The reservoir or host of the Lassa virus is the
“multimammate rat” called Mastomys
natalensis which has many breasts and lives
in the bush and peri-residential areas.
Meanwhile, Lassa fever panic has hit Plateau
State as cases have been reported in five
local government areas of the state. One
person has already been reported dead in Jos,
the state capital.
Although the area where the person died was
kept in guided secret, the State Commissioner
for Health, Dr. Kuden Kamshak, said some
cases were reported in Jos North, Mangu,
Langtang South, Pankshin and Shendam local
government areas of the state.
Kamshak said that the state government had
established Disease Surveillance and
Notification Officers in each of the 17 local
governments in the state to monitor and
manage the problem before it escalates into
an epidemic.
Kamshak, while addressing newsmen in Jos
on Friday, said, “We are also working with
medical experts from the World Health
Organisation, which is assisting the state to
curb the spread.”