The Taraba State Government says it is trying to contain the outbreak of Lassa fever.

The state’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Innocent Vakkai, said one person has been confirmed dead, while two others are being observed.

He added that their blood samples have been taken to the Irrua Specialists’ Hospital in Edo State for further confirmation.


The Information Commissioner has also asked members of the public not to panic, as the state government has responded swiftly to the outbreak.

Lassa fever outbreak occurred in Taraba State in February 2012, causing the death of 10 people, including a doctor and two nurses who attended to the patients.

According to CDC, Lassa fever is defined as an acute viral illness that occurs in west Africa. The illness was discovered in 1969 when two missionary nurses died in Nigeria. The virus is named after the town in Nigeria where the first cases occurred. The virus, a member of the virus family Arenaviridae, is a single-stranded RNA virus and is zoonotic, or animal-borne.

Lassa fever is endemic in parts of west Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria; however, other neighboring countries are also at risk, as the animal vector for Lassa virus, the "multimammate rat" (Mastomys natalensis) is distributed throughout the region. In 2009, the first case from Mali was reported in a traveler living in southern Mali; Ghana reported its first cases in late 2011. Isolated cases have also been reported in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and there is serologic evidence of Lassa virus infection in Togo and Benin.

The number of Lassa virus infections per year in west Africa is estimated at 100,000 to 300,000, with approximately 5,000 deaths. Unfortunately, such estimates are crude, because surveillance for cases of the disease is not uniformly performed. In some areas of Sierra Leone and Liberia, it is known that 10%-16% of people admitted to hospitals every year have Lassa fever, which indicates the serious impact of the disease on the population of this region.


Source:
http://rtm-ajayi..com.ng/2016/01/taraba-government-confirms-lassa-fever.html

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