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.