Afrogalleria....trending news from Africa and of Africans.
Lassa fever kills doctor in Port Harcourt
•Outbreak is national embarrasment –Minister
A medical doctor, Dr. Living Jamala, has died of the contagious Lassa fever disease in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He was suspected to have contracted the virus when he treated patients inflicted with Lasser fever.
The deceased hailed from Abua, in Abua/Odual Local Government Area of the state.
His death occurred few hours before medical doctors in the state embarked on indefinite strike in solidarity with two of their colleagues abducted by gunmen.
Late Dr. Jamala has become the third victim of Lassa fever, after the outbreak of the epidemic in the state a fortnight ago.
Daily Sun gathered that over 60 people have been placed under surveillance following the outbreak of the disease in the state.
A nursing mother and her two weeks baby died between Wednesday, December 30, 2015, and January 1, from the contagious disease.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Theophilus Adangbe, recently told newsmen, in Port Harcourt that 12 medical personnel who attended to the victims, at a public health centre, and 50 others are now under observation.
He urged the public to take issues on hygiene seriously, and to cover their meals as well as foodstuffs.
Meanwhile, Health Minister, Prof Isaac Adewole yesterday described the outbreak of Lassa fever a national embarrassment to Nigeria .
Adewole said this during his submissions before the Senate Committee on Health on efforts being made by his ministry at curtailing the outbreak. He said the disease, being a native of West Africa, is supposed to have been rendered impotent over the years.
“Unlike Ebola, which took the nation by surprise last year, after being imported from Liberia by an infected person, Lassa fever, which has over the years registered its presence in the country, is supposed not to have taken us by surprise had infected people reported promptly.”
He disclosed that the current outbreak started in August last year in Foka village in Niger State, but snowballed into an outbreak across nine states of the Federation due to non reportage of its infection and death of victims to the appropriate authorities.
He consequently urged Nigerians to report at the hospitals any fever treated by them without any relief after two days, saying that is the commonest preliminary symptoms of the deadly disease before getting to the advance level of victims committing blood, or blood running from their nostrils, eyes or ears.
Statistically, the minister said the disease, which is very common in Nigeria, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with infection of about 300, 000 people on any year of outbreak, recorded 1, 776 cases in Nigeria in 2012, 1, 195 in 2013, and 499 cases in 2015.
Ends…
Read more gists here: Home