Lassa fever: Two die in Nasarawa, one under surveillance

No fewer than two persons have been confirmed dead at the Dalhatu Specialist Hospital in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, following the outbreak of Lassa fever in the state.
The state commissioner for health, Dr Daniel Iya, confirmed the incident in Lafia during a public hearing organised by the Nasarawa State House of Assembly’s committee on health.

Iya disclosed that one victim was still under surveillance while another has been discharged.

He said the state did not have an isolation unit but only isolation rooms at the DASH, adding that there was no single isolation unit for the treatment of Lassa fever across the state.

The commissioner also hinted that Governor Umaru Al-Makura had already released the sum of N5.9m to control the spread of the virus across the state, promising to build an isolation unit in the state capital to effectively isolate and treat persons affected with the virus.

He said, “We have already bought 2000 injections of Ribavirin, 1000 tablets of Rivabirin and we are tracking about 130 persons in the state.”

According to him, there are plans are by the state ministry of health to sensitise people at the grass-roots on Lassa fever from next month.

Meanwhile, a Professor of Virology and President, Nigerian Academy of Science, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has said the country may be at risk of the mosquito-borne Zika virus infection and needs to prevent it from spreading into the country from Latin America.

Tomori, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone on Saturday, said a mild strain of the Zika virus had been discovered in Nigeria decades ago, but it was not a deadly one as the one currently seen in Brazil and Latin America.

Tomori, who also chairs the Federal Government’s Multi-sectorial Committee on the eradication of Lassa fever, advised Nigerians to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene.

He said, “We have to prepare for anything that comes, for any eventuality. We never thought that Ebola was going to come here, so we have to be prepared for everything at all times. Presently, there is no vaccine for Zika virus.

“People should protect themselves from mosquitoes by keeping their environment clean and maintaining good personal hygiene, like in the case of Lassa fever, keep your environment clean so that rodents won’t come into your house. It is the same with mosquitoes.

“Don’t keep stagnant pools of water in the neighbourhood; keep your environment clean so as not to encourage the breeding of mosquitoes that can possibly transmit these diseases.

“There is no doubt that the mosquito that can transmit Zika is in Nigeria. We have had evidence of it before. Whether this would cause a major infection now, we don’t know. But definitely we must prepare. Nigeria may be at risk, definitely. Already the Ministry of Health had already issued an alert because they feared that it may be a problem.”

Tomori added that his committee was still in the preliminary stages of gathering data on Lassa fever outbreak in the country. “Let me put it this way, I don’t want to comment on it yet, there is still some validation going on. So, it would be premature for me to make any comment for now,” he said.