General

Lassa fever: Declare national emergency now, NAS tells FG

Published

February 11, 2020

The Nigeria Academy of Science has called on the Federal Government to declare Lassa fever disease a public health event of national emergency and concern, saying that since the disease was first reported in Nigeria in January 1969, a total of 16,783 suspected cases had been reported with 1,047 deaths.

In a statement signed by its president, Prof Mosto Onuoha, NAS said 73 healthcare workers had died so far been infected and died of the disease, while also frowning at laboratory confirmation of suspected cases. The body said out of the 3,498 suspected cases in 2018, only 633 cases, representing 18 per cent, were confirmed positive, while in 2019, only 833 cases, representing 16.5 per cent of the 5,057 suspected cases, were confirmed.

It said, “The disease occurs throughout the year, with seasonal peaks, beginning from the early dry season months of November until the beginning of the rainy season. Between 1969 and 2007, Lassa fever was reported in only two states (Borno and Plateau). However, from 2008 to 2012, the disease spread to an additional eight other states. From 2013 until 2019, at least 23 states report Lassa fever cases annually.

“Over the 50-year period of Nigeria reporting 16,783 suspected Lassa fever cases, 11,195 were reported between 2016 and January 29, 2020, while 632 out of 1,047 Lassa fever deaths were reported during the same period.

“In 2016, 921 suspected cases were reported. The respective figures for 2017 and 2018 were 1,030 and 3498 suspected cases. An alarm was raised over the tripling of the number of suspected cases between 2017 and 2018, only for the reported number of suspected cases to rise in 2019 to 5057 which was 145 per cent of the reported 2018 figures.”

The body said it observed that while a drug exists for the treatment of the disease, the inefficient laboratory diagnosis and late hospital admission of patients made the drug less effective in treating Lassa fever patients.

It added, “The spread of the disease throughout the country may have resulted from increasing human-rodent contact in an explosive population of rodents generated by pervasive poor environmental sanitation.

“While acknowledging and commending the effort of the FG, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and other relevant agencies so far, the Academy hereby calls for more action and recommends that the FG declare Lassa fever disease a public health event of national concern attaining an emergency status.

“An interdisciplinary One-Health Committee (comprising of medical and veterinary specialists, epidemiologists, social scientists, media practitioners, community representatives etc.) should be set up to advise and assist the NCDC in investigating and managing Lassa fever outbreaks.

“Government should provide adequate funds for a sensitive disease surveillance system backed by a reliable network of diagnostic laboratories.”