Posted
By: The
Health Piloton: June 29, 2017
Lassa fever
is an acute viral haemorrhagic fever illness that is known to be endemic in
various West African countries including Nigeria. As of 9 June 2017, a total of
501 suspected cases including 104 deaths have been reported since the onset of
the current Lassa
fever outbreaks season in December 2016. Of the reported
cases, 189 have been further classified, 175 laboratory-confirmed including 59
deaths and 14 probable cases (all dead).
During the
current Lassa fever outbreak, 17 Nigerian states (Anambra, Bauchi, Borno, Cross-River,
Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Plateau,
Rivers, and Taraba) have reported at least one confirmed case. As of 9 June
2017, the outbreak is still active in 9 states (Anambra, Bauchi, Cross-River,
Edo, Taraba, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau, and Kano).
Public
health response
The ongoing
outbreak response is focused at State and federal levels and involves
coordination of weekly Lassa fever review meeting in conjunction with World
Health Organization, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), and the African Field
Epidemiology Network.
The
following response measures are being carried out:
·
Enhanced surveillance is ongoing in all affected states and Lassa fever cases
are reported to the federal level and contact tracing is ongoing in affected
states with an active outbreak through the state surveillance team.
·
The line listing of cases reported across all the states is ongoing and data
are uploaded in the VHF database.
·
Lassa fever treatment centers have been established in the affected states to
support case management. These centers are supplied with case management as
well as infection prevention and control supplies.
WHO risk
assessment
Lassa fever
is an acute viral haemorrhagic fever illness. Lassa fever is transmitted to
humans via contact with food or household items contaminated with rodent urine
or faeces. Person-to-person infections and laboratory transmission can also
occur. Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and other West African countries and
causes outbreaks almost every year in different parts of the region, with
yearly peaks observed between December and June.
Overall, the
current risk assessment for Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria shows a declining
trend of outbreaks. Considering this, ongoing response measures remains focused
on preparedness and response in general and further risk of large scale
outbreaks is not very high. However, a close follow up, active case searching,
contact tracing, laboratory support and disease awareness (in the community and
for health care workers) should remain ongoing. Although there is constant
population movement between these Nigerian states, a large-scale disease
transmission or outbreak spread has not been reported. However, there have been
sporadic cases reported in Togo and Benin originating from Nigeria.
WHO advice
Prevention
of Lassa fever relies on promoting good “community hygiene” to discourage
rodents from entering homes. In health-care settings, staff should always apply
standard infection prevention and control precautions when caring for patients,
regardless of their presumed diagnosis.
On rare
occasions, travellers from areas where Lassa fever is endemic export the
disease to other countries. Although other tropical infections are much more
common, the diagnosis of Lassa fever should be considered in febrile patients
returning from West Africa, especially if they have had exposures in rural
areas or hospitals in countries where Lassa fever is known to be endemic.
Health care workers seeing a patient suspected to have Lassa fever should
immediately contact local and national experts for advice and to arrange for
laboratory testing. Source: The WHO’
Africa Center for Clin Gov Research &
Patient Safety
@ HRI West Africa
Group - HRI WA
Consultants in
Clinical Governance Implementation
Publisher: Health and
Medical Journals
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Estate, Calabar
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Cross River State, Nigeria
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