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Threat level raised, as 3 more LUTH workers test positive for Lassa fever

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Three out of the one hundred health workers that were placed under surveillance after reportedly having contact with a pregnant woman who died of Lassa fever at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, have tested positive for the infection.

This development was confirmed by LUTH’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Chris Bode, at a joint briefing by the hospital’s management and  officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

Bode stated that the health workers had been admitted to the Isolation Ward at the teaching  hospital alongside  a female resident doctor who contracted the infection  while conducting an autopsy  on one of the index cases.

He also identified the second patient who died of the disease at the hospital as a sickle cell patient that was admitted on August 5.

He added that the victim had just come in from a neighbouring state.

The CMD stated that all the other 97 contacts were still under surveillance.

Read also: Panic as Lassa fever kills 2 in Lagos, 100 others placed under surveillance

Bode said, “Three of the persons who have symptoms are receiving  treatment at the Isolation Ward. They are being cared for by a group of professionals, volunteer doctors, epidemiologists, microbiologists, emotional caregivers and cleaners round-the-clock.

“And I want to assure the concerned public that they are responding well to treatment. This current outbreak is effectively being monitored. Those that are being monitored have been given thermometers to check their temperature. So, let us douse the panic.”

The Director, Diseases Control, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Eniola Erinosho, who was also at the briefing,  said the state government  had taken charge over the body of the first victim from the family and had taken all necessary measures related to the disposal of the body.

Erinosho added that all the private hospitals that the victims had visited before they were referred to LUTH had been placed under a 21-day surveillance, noting that the Lagos State Ministry of Health had directed its Epidemiology Unit to move into LUTH.

“We are on top of the situation and there should be no panic. The index case was referred from Divine Grace Hospital, Imota, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos. We have been  there and have taken charge of the situation, but none of the people there has actually come down with the fever.

“We have about 22 people there. Today is the 14th day of monitoring and we hope that in the next seven days they will be discharged from the monitoring list. At present, we have two suspected cases at the Mainland Hospital but they are under control”, he said.

Erinosho also said that the state government would take over the management of the second corpse in possession of LUTH, while explaining that the first victim had been moved to Ilesa, Osun State, in order for the officials there to dispose of the body according to international standards.

He said, “We have been to the house of the late patients and hospitals where they were first admitted. All arrangements have been made to bury the corpse based on international standards.

“In a case like this, we use body bags and we seal the coffin and the relatives will not see the body. From there, we have a special unit in the ministry called the State Environmental Monitoring Unit, which carries out the procedure.”

Erinosho advised that Nigerians keep their foodstuffs away from rats and take all other necessary precautions on hygiene.

He urged the public not to panic, as Lassa fever, according to him, is a curable disease whose treatment is readily available in the country.

Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Primary Health Care, Dr. Olufemi Onanuga, in a statement issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Health, confirmed that laboratory results of the two suspected cases at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, were negative.

Onanuga said the two patients had been referred from the General Hospital, Lagos, and a private hospital in Imota in Ikorodu.

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0 Comments

  1. Animashaun Ayodeji

    August 10, 2017 at 9:40 am

    Lassa fever should not leave Lagos for other poor states abeg o. Lagos I’m confident that the state has all it takes to tackle Lassa fever, but other states, so many people will die before they find solution

    • seyi jelili

      August 11, 2017 at 12:09 am

      What nonsense are you saying

  2. Abeni Adebisi

    August 10, 2017 at 9:45 am

    Three people out of 100 tested positive for Lassa fever, I cannot say this is carelessness, but still bad because they are medical practitioners and they should know the risks involved in treating patients with Lassa fever

  3. Anita Kingsley

    August 10, 2017 at 9:51 am

    All these nonsense sicknesses, na Lagos them dey always dey, them swell for them? And people won’t stop rushing to the state like it’s the only place to be in Nigeria. Make the victims sorry o

    • seyi jelili

      August 11, 2017 at 12:10 am

      It’s the only state in Nigeria where the poor can strive to someone in life.

  4. JOHNSON PETER

    August 10, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    Laser fever won’t destroy us in this country before we move to Biafra, a country free from rat infestation.

    • yanju omotodun

      August 10, 2017 at 7:49 pm

      Mumu, even in London, there are rats, so get out

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