In Benue State, Lassa fever has claimed the lives of nine individuals in the past two months.

Dr. Sam Ngishe, the State Epidemiologist, revealed this to reporters over the phone on Thursday, 29th February 2024.

This comes after the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDCP) reported that it had identified 2,621 suspected cases of Lassa fever, of which 84 resulted in death, representing an 18.6% case fatality rate.

Ngishe reports that 46 people in the State had contracted the feared sickness, including medical professionals and internally displaced people.

He reported that among the internally displaced people in the Ortese IDP Camp in the State’s Guma LGA, 4 cases had been discovered.

According to Dr. Ngishe, the illness has spread to 7 States in 23 Local Government Districts. The afflicted council areas are Obi, Okpokwu, Gwer West, Makurdi, Guma, Gwer East, and Ukum.

He declared: “There have been nine confirmed cases of deaths, and the deceased have been buried in line with safe burial practices in the different parts of the State from whence they come originally.”

The Epidemiologist, who also noted that the state’s fatality rate was rather high, stated that efforts are being made by the State to lower it.

“We are hoping to reduce the numbers of deaths so that the state’s key fatality rate is less than 10 percent, which is what the Federal Government expects of every State,” he stated. Right now, our situation is higher than that number.

The State Epidemiologist reports that the Federal Government is implementing measures to address sustainability, including working with the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Bank.

Furthermore, “we have made a strong effort to improve community risk communication and surveillance, as well as to discuss the laboratory component of response and coordination.”

The Community (Housing Ortese IDP Camp) is under active surveillance, he said. “As you are aware, the IDP camp is a cluster setting with very poor infection control in terms of poor sanitation, crowded environment, and they have issues of malnutrition,” he said. “And from our report thus far, the IDP camp has a high population of rats; so, if the rats transmitting such are within the IDP camps, it means that we need to work hard so we don’t have an outbreak that will be difficult to control.”

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