Abuja, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) The Center for Disease Control of Nigeria reported today that 119 lives have been claimed by the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in this country.
The report also said that in the week of March 12th to 18th, the disease killed five more people, with 11 new confirmed cases and 109 suspects.
According to the health center, since early this year, there have been a total of 1,495,000 suspected cases, with 376 confirmed as positive and 26 pending laboratory results.
There was also a slight increase in the rate of fatalities, which increased from 24 percent to 24.7 percent, while the victims are located in 19 of the 36 states of Nigeria and 10 of them are still active.
The center also said that 86 of the fatal victims were diagnosed as positive, nine of them were considered probable and 24 were diagnosed as negative cases when they were tested.
The report indicated that 3,675 contacts were identified and 805 of them are currently being tested for the disease.
The Lassa fever, identified for the first time in 1969 in the Nigerian community of Lassa (north), is asymptomatic in 80 percent of cases, but it can cause serious hemorrhagic or neurological damage in others.