Lassa fever death toll rises to 70 in Nigeria

The Lassa fever death toll has risen to 70, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has disclosed.

The Nigerian health agency, in its weekly situation report on the status of the disease, said since the beginning of the year, more suspected and confirmed cases have been reported.

In the reporting week, it said there were 482 suspected cases of the disease with 104 new confirmed cases and eight deaths reported.

The number of new confirmed cases increased from 104 cases in week five to 109 cases.


Of these, four new health workers were affected in Ondo, Delta and Kaduna states in the reporting week six.

The total Lassa cases were reported from 19 states – Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Delta, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Enugu, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Rivers, Katsina, Benue, Adamawa, Sokoto and Oyo.