Mathematically, Lassa fever has reportedly killed one hundred and eighteen, (118) people in eight (8) weeks, in Nigeria.
Taking its statistics from January 1, to February 23, 2020, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed that no fewer than 2,633 cases of Lassa fever have been reported since the beginning of the year, out of which 689 cases were confirmed to be positive.
The cases were reported in 115 local government areas from 27 states of the Federation.
In the eighth week – February 17-23 – which the latest NCDC report focused on, 102 of 456 reported cases from 46 local government areas from 18 states were confirmed.
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The states include Ondo, Ebonyi, Edo, Bauchi, Plateau, Benue, Lagos, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Sokoto, Taraba, Delta, Rivers, Adamawa, and Nasarawa.
A total of four new healthcare workers were also affected in Edo and Ondo States in the reporting week.
The NCDC confirmed that the number of suspected cases has significantly increased compared to the figure reported for the same period in 2019.