Nigeria sets up emergency response centre amid rise in Lassa fever cases

Lassa fever has claimed 190 lives in Nigeria this year, and the disease has infected more than 1100 people across six states.

This has prompted Nigeria to set up an emergency response centre, after a risk assessment by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control categorized it as high. The facility will help organise the control and management of the cases

The head of the agency noted that peak transmission typically occurs between October and May, and that there had been a rise in cases and deaths in the last four weeks.

A viral hemorrhagic illness, Lassa fever is primarily passed to humans by contact with food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or excrement.

Symptoms include fever, headaches and, in serious cases, death.

As a result of its epidemic potential and lack of certified vaccines, Lassa fever is classified by the World Health Organisation as a priority disease.