Deadly Disease Spreading in Nigeria
With no cure, the fatal Lassa fever has killed an unexpected number of people.
March 15, 2018
In the past few months, Nigeria has been struck with an outbreak of Lassa fever, a deadly disease that has yet to be successfully treated. Due to the fact that the disease is difficult to diagnose and examine, the recorded numbers of deaths so far is uncertain. Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control approximates around 90 deaths so far from Lassa fever, but this number could be greater.
In addition, the Center for Disease Control estimates that 22% of confirmed cases are fatal. Of these, women late in their pregnancies afflicted with the disease “face an 80% chance of losing their child, or dying themselves”, according to BBC News. And since the disease is hard to identify amongst others in the country, many cases go unnoticed.
Health experts haven’t been able to determine the cause of this affliction spike, as the disease has never reached this number of fatalities in its relatively long history.
Until officials can extensively study more about this recent outbreak, we won’t know much about it. It’s safe to say that Nigeria will be able to keep Lassa fever under control, as this isn’t the first outbreak they’ve had to deal with. But we won’t know for sure until we have more information.