THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said a total of 119 persons have been killed in the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria. The latest update also showed that the disease has become fatal with the Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) increasing from 24 per cent to 24.7 per cent. It declared: “in the reporting Week 11 (March 12-18, 2018) nine new confirmed cases were recorded from four states: Edo (two), Ondo (two), Bauchi (one), and Taraba (four) with three new deaths in confirmed cases from Taraba Edo and Ebonyi. Of these, 376 confirmed positive, nine are probable, 1,084 are negative (not a case) and 26 are awaiting laboratory results (pending). “Since the onset of the 2018 outbreak, there have been 119 deaths: 86 in positive-confirmed cases, nine in probable cases and 24 in negative cases.

Source: Nigerian Tribune March 20, 2018 16:18 UTC