Lassa fever claims 63 lives, spread to 17 states – Minister of Health says

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, says the
Lassa fever epidemic has claimed 63 lives out of 212
reported from 62 local government areas in affected
states. Speaking at the emergency National Council
of Health meeting in Abuja yesterday January 19th,
The Minister listed the 17 affected states as Bauchi,
Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Plateau,
Gombe, Nasarawa, Lagos, Delta, Ekiti, Ebonyi,
Zamfara, Kogi as well as the FCT.
He said there is high level of denial and conspiracy
across some states and appealed to health
managers to stop the trend of being silent and
deceiving their state government. He described the
denial of Ebonyi to report five suspected cases and
one death as conspiracy of denial.
Adewole added that intensive efforts are being
made to stop the spread of the deadly virus. He
announced that six of the most affected states will
have Lassa fever diagnostic centres. They are Niger,
Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Ondo states.
This is in addition to the six existing Lassa fever
treatment centres namely Irrua, Edo; University of
Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno;
Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), University
College Hospital Ibadan, and the National Centre for
Disease Control, Asokoro, Abuja.