An Expanding Lassa Fever Outbreak in Nigeria

       Lassa fever, a violent hemmorhagic disease spread through the inhalation of rodent feces has recently been expanding throughout Nigeria.  In the last week public health officials have confirmed that there were cases in 7 different states throughout the country.
     Edo State (pictured below),  lies in the southwestern portion of the country has seen the most cases, with 35 in the last month alone.

So far in 2017 17 different states of Nigeria have reported cases of the disease, infecting a suspected 973 people and killing 73.  Health officials are worried because the number of cases have increased year over year. Some think that the higher number of cases could be attributed to climate change, as the number of cases spike in the summer months due to more human rodent contact. 
   In order to quell the outbreak of Lassa fever, the WHO has been working on an education campaign to get Nigerians to cover their grain, giving victims plenty of water and proper care and cooking all foods thoroughly. I have included one of their educational fliers below.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/lassafever/Lassa-fever-infographic.pdf?ua=1
http://outbreaknewstoday.com/nigeria-lassa-outbreak-68-new-confirmed-cases-last-week-99646/

- Chris LeBoa