No fewer than nine people have died of Lassa fever in Benue State in the past two months.
The state epidemiologist, Dr Sam Ngishe, who disclosed this to journalists on Thursday, noted that some of the dead victims were persons in the Internally Displaced Persons camps.
“From our report so far, the IDP camp has a high population of rats. So, if the rat transmitting such are within the IDP camps, it means that we need to work hard so we don’t have an outbreak that will be difficult to control,” the epidemiologist said.
According to him, 46 people, including health workers and internally displaced persons, have been hit by the dreaded disease across the state.
He noted that four cases were found among the displaced persons at the Ortese IDP camp in the Guma Local Government Area of the state.
Ngishe said that the disease had spread to seven of the 23 local government areas of the state, including Obi, Okpokwu, Gwer West, Makurdi, Guma, Gwer East and Ukum.
He said, “Nine deaths in confirmed cases and they have been buried in accordance with safe burial protocols across the various areas of the state where they hail from,” he said.
The epidemiologist noted that the fatality rate was on the high side in the state, adding that the government was working towards arresting the situation.
He said, “We are hoping to reduce the numbers of the deaths such that the key fatality rate for the state is less than 10 per cent, which is what the national (authorities) expect from all of the state. For now, what we have is above that figure.
“Also, we have spoken loudly to enhance our surveillance efforts, risk communication, creating social behaviour change in the community. We have also spoken to the laboratory component of the response and coordination.
“There is active surveillance going on in the community (housing Ortese IDP camp) as you know that the IDP camp is a cluster setting with very poor infection control in terms of poor sanitation, crowded environment and they have issues of malnutrition.
