Nigeria: Lassa Fever Kills Two, Infects Health Worker, Two Others in Ondo

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed three new cases of Lassa fever in Ondo State, including a health worker with two new deaths.

Also, it said that a monkey pox case in Israel on October 13, 2018 has travel history from Nigeria.

According to the NCDC, in the reporting week 42, one new healthcare worker was infected in Ondo State and forty-one healthcare workers have been affected since the onset of the outbreak in seven states - Ebonyi (16), Edo (15), Ondo (five), Kogi (two), Nasarawa (one), Taraba (one) and Abia (one) with ten deaths in Ebonyi (five), Kogi (one), Abia (one), Ondo (two) and Edo (one).

The NCDC, which confirmed two new cases of monkey pox out of 10 new reported cases, noted that it is following up closely with the Ministry of Health in Israel following the report of a confirmed monkey pox case in the country on October 13, 2018 with a travel history from Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, will tomorrow join the Governor-General of Canada, Julie Payette, to inaugurate a new biosecurity laboratory in Lagos to curb any new Ebola outbreak in the state.

In a statement yesterday, the Lagos State Government said the laboratory would be located at the Mainland Hospital in Yaba where the isolation unit used by the state government to contain the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak was located.

It said the laboratory, funded by Canada in partnership with the state government, would serve as a single repository for all high-concentration pathogens in the state, adding that it would also help to mitigate post-EVD threats and build capacity for prevention, detection and response to future outbreak.