NIGERIA – More than 130 people are suspected to have died from a Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, according to statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The disease can cause fever and hemorrhaging of various parts of the body and can be spread through contact with an infected rat. Person to person transmission is also possible, albeit less common. West Africa as a region is seeing a flare-up of the disease, but Nigeria is experiencing much higher mortality rates than usual. On average, Lassa fever is deadly in 1% of all individuals infected, with higher rates of 15% morbidity among people hospitalized for the illness, but the current outbreak in Nigeria has seen more than 50% of those affected dying from their infection. According to NCDC’s latest report, dated 14 March 2016, the total number of reported cases is 254 and the total number of deaths (suspected, probable and confirmed) is 137, with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 53.9%. Lassa fever outbreaks occur most years in West Africa. Each year, the virus infects an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 and is responsible for 5,000 deaths in the region as a whole.(CNN)…[+]