The World Health Organisation, on Sunday, said it has increased its efforts to support West African countries, in the ongoing Lassa fever outbreak. According to him, Nigeria experienced its worst outbreak of Lassa fever and four health workers have been infected so far, in this latest outbreak. “Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness that occurs predominantly in West Africa, after human exposure to the urine or faeces of infected Mastomys rats. ”More than 80 per cent of Lassa fever cases are rodent-to-human transmission. ”In health care settings, health care workers should always apply standard infection prevention and control precautions when caring for patients,” he said.

Source: Punch February 10, 2019 14:03 UTC