Lassa Fever
Diseases centre declares Lassa Fever epidemic in Nigeria
Citing persistent cases of Lassa fever across Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Wednesday declared an outbreak of Lassa fever in the country.
The NCDC said there is an upsurge in the number of confirmed cases recorded across states since January and that Lassa fever outbreak hit all-time high in 2018.
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, announced this in Abuja.
He said: “There has been an increase in the number of Lassa fever cases reported from several states across the country since the beginning of the year. “As at January 13, 60 confirmed cases have been reported in eight states.
“Given this increase in reported cases, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has declared this an outbreak.”
He also said an Emergency Operations Centre, EOC, has been activated to coordinate the nationwide response to the outbreak, noting that the EOC includes World Health Organisation, WHO; mini-stries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Environment, US Centres for Disease Control, among others.