Lassa fever has claimed 242 lives in Nigeria this year, according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reported.
This is 72 higher than the 170 casualty figure recorded in 2019.
Lassa fever is a disease spread to humans through food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or faeces.
The disease is endemic in the West African country and its name comes from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969.
It is endemic in part of West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria. Neighbouring countries are also at risk.
From the NCDC’s report, Nigeria has so far recorded 1,175 confirmed cases of the disease in 2020 as against the 817 confirmed cases recorded in 2019.
The cases were recorded in 27 out of the nation’s 36 states and 130 local government areas out of the country’s 774.
In 2019, the cases were recorded in 23 states and 86 local government areas.
The case-fatality ratio for 2020 was put at 20.6 per cent while that of 2019 was 20.8 per cent.
The highlights of the report read, “In Week 51, the number of new confirmed cases increased from five in Week 50 to 12 cases.
“These were reported from two states; Edo and Ondo.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria recorded 749 new COVID-19 confirmed cases and three deaths on Tuesday.
NCDC tweeted “On the 29th of December 2020, 749 new confirmed cases and 3 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
“The 749 new cases are reported from 19 states- Lagos (299), Plateau (131), Kaduna (83), FCT (74), Kwara (35), Sokoto (26), Edo (18), Kano (17), Katsina (16), Delta (11), Nasarawa (10), Ondo (9), Bauchi (9), Rivers (5), Akwa Ibom (3), Jigawa (1), Osun (1) and Ekiti (1).”
It stated “Till date, 85,560 cases have been confirmed, 71,937 cases have been discharged and 1,267 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“A multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC) activated at Level 3, continues to coordinate the national response activities.”
