Lassa fever outbreak kills dozens in Nigeria
Al Jazeera, Abuja
At least 29 killed and 195 cases of the disease confirmed in the latest outbreak to hit the country, government says.
Nigerian authorities have announced increased emergency measures to contain the latest outbreak of Lassa fever in the West African country.
As at 24th of January 2020, 195 confirmed cases and 29 deaths had been reported in 11 states, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a statement on Saturday.
A national emergency operations centre had been activated to coordinate the response to the increasing number of Lassa fever cases across the country. Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever. It belongs to the same family as the Ebola and Marburg viruses but is much less deadly.
The disease is endemic to the West African country and its name comes from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969.
Previously, cases of the disease have been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo and Benin - where it killed at least 9 people in 2016. The virus is transmitted to humans from contact with food or household items contaminated with rodent faeces or urine.
