By Adeyola Opaluwah
A 25-year-old student of the Ahmadu Bello University case, has been diagnosed of Lassa Fever at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.
According to Nigeria’s Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole, the patient who was first admitted at a private hospital in Ojokoro area of Lagos State, is responding to treatment.
The death of a Lassa Fever victim at the National Hospital in Abuja, the nation’s capital, had brought the total number of deaths to 43 in the country, from 10 states.
Lassa fever is an acute haemorrhagic illness which belongs to the arenavirus family of viruses, which also includes the Ebola-like Marburg virus, according to the World Health Organization. People with Lassa fever do not display symptoms in 80 percent of cases but it can cause serious symptoms and death in the remainder.
The virus is endemic in rodents in west Africa and is transmitted to humans by contact with food or household items contaminated with the animals’ faeces and urine. Person-to-person contact is also possible through bodily fluids, particularly in hospitals when adequate infection control measures are not taken.
The number of Lassa fever infections in west Africa every year is between 100,000 to 300,000, with about 5,000 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adewole said the public should not panic because of the latest case but anyone with symptoms should seek medical attention. Lassa fever outbreaks are not uncommon in Nigeria: in 2012, 1,723 cases were recorded with 112 fatalities but rates have declined since then, the minister said last week.
