One year after the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had declared Lassa fever a public health emergency, Nigerians have continued to die of the hemorrhagic fever.
It may be recalled that between January 1 and April 28, 2019, 554 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lassa fever were reported, with 124 deaths in 21 states of the federation.
Before then, Lassa fever cases had increased in Nigeria since 2016, with the highest number of 633 cases reported in 2018.
In a Press release co-signed by the Director General, NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu; and the Officer-in-Charge, World Health Organisation, Nigeria, Clement Peter, the NCDC subsequently declared it a public health emergency on January 22, 2019.
One year after this declaration, however, Nigerians have continued to die of the hemorrhagic fever.
In its weekly situation report for week three spanning January 1 to 19, 2020, NCDC had confirmed an increase in the number of Lassa fever cases since the beginning of the year.
The NCDC stated that, between January 1 and 19, a total of 398 suspected cases were reported from various states of the federation, with 24 confirmed dead.
The NCDC’s latest weekly situation was released on Thursday, stating that 163 cases of Lassa fever have been confirmed in nine states, with 24 deaths.
Harvest of deaths
The Enugu State Ministry of Health had confirmed a case of Lassa fever death involving a 75-year-old woman at the state University Teaching Hospital, ESUTH-Parklane on Wednesday, January 22; while a single mother also died of the fever at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta State, on the same day.
At the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, two medical doctors had died after performing a Cesarean Section on a pregnant woman who had Lassa fever. The patient also died of the fever.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ibrahim Tsanyawa, confirmed the deaths on Wednesday at an emergency press conference in Kano.
As of Tuesday, Lassa fever had claimed no fewer than 15 lives in Ondo State, while 28 were said to be on danger list.
A majority of the victims were from Oka Akoko, Owo and Ose areas of Ondo State, reports said.
One Ephraim Ogaranya in Igbeagu community, Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, also died of the fever on Friday, December 27, 2019.
Ogaranya and his sibling, Uchechi Ogaranya, were admitted at St Vincent Hospital in the area, having been suspected to have been infected with the disease.
Need for vaccine development
Meanwhile, experts have isolated Lassa virus strains in the south-east region of the country, following which they stressed the need for vaccine development.
Led by Olamide K. Oloniniyi of Nagasaki University, Nagasaki in Japan, the researchers noted that Lassa fever was endemic in Nigeria.
In the publication in the peer-reviewed journal Plos, the researchers stated, “Lassa virus is endemic in parts of West Africa where it causes Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever with frequent fatal outcomes.”
They grouped the diverse Lassa virus strains into six major lineages based on their geographical location.
In the study, the researchers focused on the lineage II strains from southern Nigeria.
The viral sequences were determined from positive cases of Lassa fever reported at tertiary hospitals in Ebonyi and Enugu states between 2012 and 2016.
They noted that the epidemiological data of the 2014 Lassa fever outbreak highlighted the role of human-to-human transmission.
“These results provide new insights into the evolution of Lassa virus in southern Nigeria and have important implications for vaccine development, diagnostic assay design, and Lassa fever outbreak management,” they said.
PUNCH
