The scourge of Lassa Fever which is being carried by multimammate rats is rapidly spreading across the geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Thursday confirmed at least one reported Lassa fever case in each of 19 states in the current outbreak which started in December 2016.
The development was published in a report on NCDC’s website. The 19 states are Ogun, Bauchi, Plateau, Ebonyi, Ondo, Edo, Taraba, Nasarawa, Rivers, Kaduna, Gombe, Cross River, Borno, Kano, Kogi, Enugu, Anambra, Kwara and Lagos.
The report said the outbreak was active in Ondo, Edo, Plateau, Bauchi, Ogun, Kaduna, Kwara and Lagos states.
The report said that since the onset of the outbreak in December 2016, a total of 263 cases had been classified, 249 confirmed and 85 deaths recorded.
The report also said one new suspected case was reported in Plateau, two new confirmed cases were reported in Edo but no death recorded within the week.
There were three pending results, two from Ondo and one from Plateau, the report added.