Lassa Fever In Lagos State?
The minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole has charged health workers in Nigeria on professionalism as regards suspected cases of Lassa fever in Nigeria.
Adewole stated this in reaction to reports that some health workers at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja took to their heels when a man who had nose bleeding was brought to the emergency unit on Wednesday, January 13.
Punch reports that one of the nurses at the unit with the doctor on duty eventually came to the patient’s aid and later directed that a series of tests be conducted on him before he was admitted into the ward.
The minister said that any health personnel found to have rejected sick patients over unfound claims would be sanctioned adding that such reactions would frustrate efforts towards reducing the spread of the disease.
He said: “It is an unprofessional behaviour and if we investigate this, we would sanction such health workers. If there is a suspected case of fever, please go to LASUTH, it is a tertiary hospital and they have adequate health professionals to handle many cases. No one should turn a patient away on the basis of a fever.”
He noted that sick patients or those with symptoms of Lassa fever should be taken to LASUTH maintaining that doctors and nurses at the tertiary institution had been trained on how to quickly attend to such infectious diseases.
Adewole who confirmed that a man died of Lassa fever at the National Hospital, Abuja on Wednesday, January 13, added that a nationwide alert system has been put in place to track the disease.
“A nationwide alert system is on to track the disease. Except for the case in Plateau, no person-to-person or hospital-acquired infection has been recorded. So far, things are under control but the state and local governments should put an alert system in place to enable us to track new cases whenever they happen.”
“We are removing Gombe and Sokoto states because none of the cases were confirmed but we are adding Ondo State. So, we still have 10 states that have been affected,” he added.
Meanwhile, in order to curtail the spread of Lassa fever, the Benue state government has directed people in the state to desist from eating rats for the meantime.
Recall that the federal ministry of health had disclosed that about 35 persons had lost their lives since the outbreak of the disease in November 2015.
Also about 79 people were infected across eight states of Bauchi, Niger, Nasarawa, Kano, Rivers, Oyo and Edo.
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