A total of 242 persons have so far died of Lassa fever in Nigeria this year .
This is 72 higher than the 170 – casualty figure recorded in 2019 .
The figure is contained in a situation report on the disease released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control .
Lassa fever is a disease spread to humans through food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or faeces .
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 .
It is endemic in part of West Africa , including Sierra Leone , Liberia , Guinea and Nigeria . Neighbouring countries are also at risk.
From the NCDC’ s report , Nigeria has so far recorded 1 , 175 confirmed cases of the disease in 2020 as against the 817 confirmed cases recorded in 2019.
The cases were recorded in 27 out of the nation’ s 36 states and 130 local government areas out of the country’ s 774 .
In 2019 , the cases were recorded in 23 states and 86 local governments.
The case – fatality ratio for 2020 was put at 20 . 6 per cent while that of 2019 was 20 . 8 per cent.
The highlights of the report read , “ In Week 51 , the number of new confirmed cases increased from five in Week 50 to 12 cases. These were reported from two states ; Edo and Ondo. ”
