ProMED: Lassa virus transmission continues in Nigeria

Epidemics can occur anywhere, at any time.

We publish regular updates, produced by Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED), on outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases to keep you informed on the frequency and impact of our priority diseases.

ProMED is the largest publicly-available system conducting global reporting of infectious diseases outbreaks, with ProMED staff, moderators and team members scanning for, reviewing and posting information relating to global health security from official health reports and media articles.

The below post contains information from health reports, news articles, and academic papers relating to our priority diseases, compiled together by ProMED. Content below may be edited from original ProMED posts for style and length.

These posts provide an overview of disease outbreak activity over the past several weeks. For the latest information relating to outbreaks of infectious diseases, please visit the ProMED website.

Lassa fever

Location

Nigeria
 

Outbreak Update

Eleven new confirmed cases were reported in Nigeria from 28 October to 3 November 2019.

Since the beginning of 2019, a total of 4396 suspected cases have been reported from 23 states across Nigeria. Of these, 754 were confirmed positive, 19 probable, and 3623 negative (not a case).

Since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 158 deaths in confirmed cases.

The predominant age group affected is 21-40 years, with the male-female ratio 1:1.

A total of 19 healthcare workers have been infected since the onset of the outbreak in 10 states.

Nine patients are currently being managed at various treatment centres across the country: Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) treatment Centre (7) and Federal Medical Centre, Owo (2).

National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group (TWG) continues to coordinate response activities at all levels.

See the full ProMED post