The Plateau State Commissioner for
Health, Dr. Kuden Kamshak, has said that five cases of Lassa fever have
been detected in Jos, the state capital.
He said that the patients were responding to treatment.
Kamshak said, “So far, we have only five
cases and they are responding to treatment. We have advised doctors not
to keep patients for so long in the hospital to avoid contact and
spread.”
The commissioner, who spoke in Jos on
Thursday, said that Plateau State had been identified as one of the
hotbed of the ailment due to its proximity to most of the Lassa fever
endemic states, hence, the need for citizens to maintain a clean and
healthy environment.
He added that health officers had been
sent to rural communities to sensitise them on the dangers of the
disease and the symptoms to look out for
Following the death of a resident doctor
at the Maxilofacial Surgery Department at the Obafemi Awolowo
University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, the Osun State government
has also placed 55 persons under surveillance.
The Permanent Secretary, Osun State
Ministry of Health, Dr. Temitope Oladele, while briefing journalists in
his office on Thursday said that the state had created emergency centres
to ensure that the disease was contained.
Oladele said the preliminary report of
the test carried out on the blood sample of the doctor “came back as
compatible with Lassa virus.”
He, however, said the confirmatory test
could not be done following his death but he added that the state had
gone ahead to prepare to contain the virus.
Oladele said no other case had been
found anywhere in the state apart from this index case which according
to him was imported from a neighbouring state he declined to mention.
He said, “We have traced 55 persons who he had contact with before his death and we have placed them under surveillance.
“As of today, none of them has shown any
symptoms of Lassa fever but we are watching over them to ensure that
the disease does not spread.
“We have dedicated lines of those in the emergency centres, the numbers are
08032394921; 08062473160: 08035620234 and 08034175852.”
However, the Ebonyi State government on
Thursday denied reports of any outbreak of Lassa fever outbreak,
insisting that no case had been recorded.
According to the state Commissioner for
Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike, Lassa fever cases can only be ascertained
after a laboratory test must have been carried out.
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