The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported six additional confirmed cases of Lassa fever last week, bringing the country’s total to 247 cases since the start of the year. In addition, 50 deaths linked to confirmed cases, or 20% of the total, have been reported. In total for 2021, 14 states have recorded at least one confirmed case in 52 local government areas.
Of all confirmed cases, 79% are from states ofEdo (44 %), d’All right (28%) and stall (7 %).
Reminders on the Lassa fever :
The Lassa fever is a hemorrhagic fever caused by a Arenaviridae the virus Lassa. It is endemic in several West African countries, Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where epidemic outbreaks occur regularly and affect 100 to 300,000 people per year, including 5 to 6,000. succumb.
The main reservoir of Lassa virus is a small peri-domestic rodent called Mastomys natalensis. The virus is transmitted to humans through contact with animal feces (urine, faeces). Many of these rodents live near or even inside homes, and their infection rate can be up to 80%. Contacts between humans and the infected reservoir are therefore very frequent in the villages. The virus can also be transmitted from person to person, mainly in a hospital setting, by skin-to-mucous membrane contact with a patient’s body fluids.
The clinical picture of Lassa fever is variable, from asymptomatic infection, which is very common (80% of cases), to severe haemorrhagic fever. The disease begins 6 to 21 days after infection with not very specific clinical signs: fever, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, asthenia. In severe cases, the symptoms then worsen, with the appearance of edema, hemorrhagic signs, pericardial and pleural effusions, and more rarely encephalitis. The patient died against a background of hypotensive and hypovolemic shock and renal and hepatic failure.
Lassa fever is extremely serious for pregnant women, frequently leading to the death of the mother and systematically to that of the fetus.
Source : Outbreak News Today.
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