The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it has recorded 659 confirmed cases of Lassa fever with 120 deaths as at last week, in over 23 states.
Director-general of NCDC, Dr. Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa, who stated this at a press briefing in Abuja, said the case fatality rate is now 19 per cent, adding that reported death among healthcare workers continue to be a cause for distress.
He however said that rapid response team have been deployed in the FCT to Nasarawa, Edo, Oyo and to others even as they continue to provide commodities.
On COVID-19, the director, hospital services, Dr Adebimpe Adebiyi, said no death recorded for over three weeks, adding that the proportion of confirmed cases recorded with associated or underline medical condition (comorbidity) for the week under review is 55 per cent.
She said oxygen availability at the isolation ward is optimal, nothing that there was no surge in patients requiring oxygen during the period in review.
On tuberculosis, the director and national coodinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike said TB cases on anual basis is estimated at 440 new cases in Nigeria but since the inception of the programme, the country have struggle to make that breakthrough.
He said in 2021, “We were able to notify 207,000 cases, a 50 per cent increase from what we had in 2020. That shows that the cases are there.
“Even with the 207,000 cases, we realised that the children were being left behind. To ensure that we are able to get to those children who are malnurished, at welfare clinic if you take the stool of those children who are malnurished and test it with gene xpert, we will be able to improve our clinical case finding. We are coming up with more digital x-tray to be able to.“
He explained that TB is not cause by any witchcraft but by a bacteria, adding that the treatment is free.
“If you‘re coughing for more than two weeks and you have taken antibiotics and is not working, go and test for TB,” he said. Childhood Tuberculosis: Do You Know It’s Preventable, Treatable?
Credit: Leadership