The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it is
currently responding to yellow fever outbreaks in Delta, Enugu and
Bauchi States, amid reports of 76 deaths recorded in November, Dr
Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of NCDC, said.
Giving updates on the outbreak in an interview with
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Abuja, Ihekweazu said
that following the outbreak this month, 1, 2 and 8 cluster cases
and deaths were reported to the agency by the State Epidemiologists
of the three affected states.
He disclosed that 74 suspected cases involving 35
deaths were reported from Delta State; 70 suspected cases with 33
deaths from Enugu and 78 suspected cases with 8 deaths from Bauchi
state, respectively. The yellow fever virus is spread through the
bite of an infected mosquito.
The NCDC director general revealed that from
preliminary investigations, three samples from Delta, one sample
from Enugu, and eight samples from Bauchi were confirmed as yellow
fever from the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test conducted at
the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Gaduwa, FCT.
“Between
Nov. 1 and 11, 2020, a total of 222 suspected cases, 19 confirmed
cases and 76 deaths have been reported from these three
states,” he said.
Ihekweazu stated that most of the cases were males,
with ages ranging from 1-55 years, presenting symptoms that
included fever, headache, fatigue, jaundice, abdominal pain,
vomiting with or without blood, epistaxis, blood in
stools/urine,
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
According to him, as at Nov. 7 the National Yellow
Fever Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated to coordinate
all response activities across the affected states.
“The State Epidemiology Team in the affected states
is leading the response with support from NCDC, the National
Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and World Health
Organisation (WHO).
National Rapid Response Teams (RRT) from the NCDC
have been deployed to support response activities in Delta and
Enugu States,” he said.
NAN recalls that as at early October this year, the
country had reported a total of eight confirmed cases of yellow
fever from seven LGAs across four states with no deaths, as a
multi-agency yellow fever Technical Working Group coordinated by
NCDC, has kicked in response activities in the country.
Meanwhile, Yellow fever vaccine is available for free
at Primary Health Care (PHC) centres across the country, as part of
the national childhood routine immunisation schedule.
The post 73 Reportedly Dead As Yellow Fever Hits Bauchi, Delta
and Enugu appeared first from online sources and was reposted by the community on Retwtr.com News Adverts
Nigerian Twitter Search Nigeria Click now login logout with
facebook – Latest News and Updates.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/11/15/73-reportedly-dead-as-yellow-fever-hits-bauchi-delta-and-enugu/