Taraba Records Over 60 Lassa Fever Deaths Annually – WHO

Taraba State is among five states with the highest number of confirmed cases of Lassa Fever in the country, with about 63 deaths recorded annually in the state.

The surveillance officer with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Taraba State, Halilu Sani Abubakar, disclosed this at a meeting with community health workers and media executives on community-led intervention for Lassa Fever, held at Sunkani, Ardo-Kola local government of the state.

Abubakar said there are about 380 suspected cases across the 16 local government areas with 132 confirmed cases in four local governments, out of hich about 63 persons died of the disease annually.

The WHO surveillance officer, who identified Jalingo, Bali, Ardo-Kola and Gassol local government areas as red spots for the disease, attributed it to why Taraba tops the list among states with the highest cases of Lassa Fever in the country.

“Out of 100 cases that we reported and confirmed to be Lassa Fever, 46 of them died, which means the case fatality rate is very high. Perhaps, people don’t normally report these cases on time,” he said.

He said the essence of the meeting was to sensitise the people on the symptoms and risks to humanity, as the pilot for the community-led intervention was to mitigate the epidemic in the state.

The Benue State coordinator of WHO, Mohammed Abdulkarim, who gave insight into the successes recorded in Benue, said, eradicating the disease requires collective efforts of all stakeholders in Taraba State.

The representative from the Taraba State Ministry of Health, Dahiru Zakari, said that the state government was working to eradicate Lassa Fever from the state.