Nigeria: Lassa Fever outbreak (Situation as of 22 March, 2012)

A total of 623 cases and 70 deaths (CFR: 11.2%) were reported from 19 states

Event description

At the beginning of 2012, WHO was noti-fied by The Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria of an outbreak of Lassa fever. As of March 22, 2012, 623 cases including 70 deaths (CFR 11.2%) have been reported from 19 out of 36 States. Of these, 108 have been laboratory confirmed. Three doctors and four nurses were reported to be among the fatalities.

Actions taken

The Federal and State governments are implementing the following preventive and control measures with support from WHO: enhancement of disease surveillance, case management, infection and prevention con-trol, training of health workers and sensiti-zation of the population.

Geographical distribution of Lassa Fever in Nigeria, 22 March 2012

Weekly distribution of Lassa Fever cases and deaths in Nigeria , 11 March 2012

05 Dec 2011 Onset of the outbreak

05 - 09 Dec 2011 Investigation and response teams deployed in Lagos, Gombe, Rivers and Delta States. Ribavirin supplied, clinicians sensitized and treatment pro-tocol & case defini-tion disseminated

03 - 08 Jan 2012 Investigation and response teams deployed in Rivers State Ribavirin supplied, clinicians sensitized and treatment pro-tocol & case defini-tion disseminated

17 - 21 Jan 2012 Investigation and response teams deployed in Ebonyi, Nassarawa and Plateau State Ribavirin supplied, health workers sensitized and treatment protocol & case definition disseminated

05 - 09 Feb 2012 Investigation and response teams deployed in Taraba State Ribavirin supplied, health workers sensitized and treat-ment protocol & case definition dis-seminated

14 Feb 2012 Emergency meeting of the Lassa Fever stakehold-ers forum conducted

21 Feb 2012 Press brief-ing by the Minister of State for Health on the Lassa Fever in the country

22 Feb 2012 Lassa Fever Rapid Re-sponse Committee Inaugurat-ed by MOH

29 Feb 2012 SOP, stand-ard treat-ment proto-cols and key messages disseminat-ed to all states

07 - 08 Feb 2012 Review of response plan by the Lassa Fever Rapid Response Committee

09 Feb 2012 - date Active sur-veillance, case man-agement clinician sensitization and public awareness ongoing

 Nigeria: Lassa Fever outbreak (Situation as of 22 March, 2012) (441.03 kB)