In efforts targeted at preventing diseases and ensuring good hygiene, Nigerian health officials have confirmed a case of Lassa fever in Borno state.

According to Ceoafrica, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Haruna Mshelia, said that a 32-year-old woman who lives in a village near the state’s capital, Maiduguri, had been diagnosed with the fever.

He said she became ill last week and was admitted to a government hospital in Maiduguri, where a sample of her blood was taken and sent to Lagos for testing; the sample came back positive.

Lassa fever was first discovered in Lassa village in southern part of Borno state in 1969. It is an acute and sometimes fatal disease, usually acquired from infected rats.