Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has announced 14 deaths in 10 states from suspected cases of yellow fever between January to July 2022.
The NCDC which disclosed this via its official website, Sunday, listed the affected states to include; Abia (one), Bayelsa (one), Benue (one), Imo (one), Kaduna (one), Katsina (two), Kebbi (one), Taraba (two), Yobe (one) and Zamfara (three).
According to the NCDC, the male to female ratio for suspected cases was 1:1.7 with males 637 (54 per cent) and females 542 (46 per cent), adding further that 74 per cent of cases were aged 30 years and below.
“One hundred and twenty-six (10.7 per cent) of 1,179 suspected cases had at least one dose of the yellow fever vaccine,” it said
The agency also disclosed that it is coordinating response activities through the National Multi-agency Yellow Fever Technical Working Group.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes.
The “yellow” in the name refers to jaundice that affects some patients.
While the symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue, a small proportion of patients who contract the virus develop severe symptoms and approximately half of those die within seven to 10 days.
The Nigerian Public Health Institute said that cumulatively a total of 1,179 suspected cases of yellow fever were reported from 416 local government areas between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2022.
It said that one case each was confirmed from five states, namely Sokoto (Dange-Shuni LGA), Osun (Atakunmosa East LGA), Ondo (Akure South LGA), Anambra (Idemili South LGA) and Imo (Nwangele LGA).