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Lassa Fever spread to 91 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 33 States
Lassa Fever – The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has dispersed its Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) to the states of Kogi, Plateau, Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Taraba, Benue, Gombe, and Nasarawa for an initial two-week period between January and March 2025.
This decision was made in response to the ongoing outbreak of Lassa fever in certain regions of the country.
According to the agency, the deployments in Edo and Taraba were extended by ten and seven days, respectively, as part of its response strategy and due to the continuously fluctuating nature of the outbreak.
Following the detection of 3,465 suspected Lassa fever patients throughout 91 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 33 States during the period in question, the Director General of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jide Idris, stated that the deployment of RRTs became imperative.
He stated that 645 of the cases had been confirmed, but unfortunately, 118 people had passed away as a result of the incident, which resulted in a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 18.3 percent.
Sani Datti, the Head of Corporate Communications for the Nigerian Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), made a statement in which he stated that healthcare professionals have also been impacted.
Twenty infections have been reported, with eight cases in the state of Ondo, four cases in Bauchi, one case in Edo, two cases in Taraba, one case in Ebonyi, two cases in Gombe, one case in Benue, and one case in Ogun.
In light of this unfortunate turn of events, he stated that the Lassa Fever National Emergency Operations Centre (LF-EOC) has been created at Response Level Two in order to improve the response and control strategies for the outbreak.
According to him, the purpose of the move was to improve coordination among the various key stakeholders, which included the federal government, state governments, and local governments, as well as those involved in development.
In addition, he stated that the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has provided the afflicted states with essential medical resources, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), and that treatment medications were also distributed with state-specific recommendations in order to assist in the prevention and control of Lassa fever.
Lack of funding and personnel for case management, contact tracing, and early discovery were among the issues he cited as ongoing roadblocks to containment efforts. Inadequate community-level surveillance was another.
He pleaded with state governments to help cover the costs of treating Lassa fever and comparable diseases and advised people with symptoms to get medical help quickly so that treatment would have a better chance of success.