Lassa fever deaths in Nigeria this year rise to 109

The death toll from Lassa fever in Nigeria this year rose to 109. The figure is a cumulative count for the year, not the deaths of a single day. Nigeria is the country reporting the toll. The increase was recorded as a health development.

Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic illness carried in parts of West Africa, including Nigeria, and spread to people mainly through contact with infected rodents or their droppings, and sometimes from person to person. A rising annual toll means more deaths have been added to the year's total. One hundred nine is the number given. The report did not give the number of suspected or confirmed cases behind those deaths.

This year, in a report dated in March, covers the months of the calendar year so far plus any counting method the health authorities use. The account did not say how many of the 109 died in the latest week. It said the toll had risen to that level. No state-by-state breakdown was included.

Hemorrhagic fevers are tracked because they can kill and because outbreaks need isolation and contact tracing. The Nigerian figure is a national toll. Nothing in the item described a new treatment or a vaccine campaign. The published fact was the death count of 109.

Annual tallies move as laboratories confirm old cases and as new patients die. Rose to 109 indicates the number is higher than the last public count, without stating what that earlier count was. The disease is Lassa fever. The country is Nigeria.

Nigeria's Lassa fever death toll for the year stands at 109. The figure is cumulative. No case total accompanied it. The rise to 109 was the health fact reported.