One person has been confirmed dead in Abuja over the cause
of Lassa Fever, bringing the death on Lassa Fever to 43, reports ITRealms.
The patient who died at the National Hospital, Abuja, the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), according to the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac
Folorunso Adewole who also confirmed the death, saying the victim was in a
private hospital for over a week before his transfer to the National Hospital Abuja.
ITRealms recalls that the federal government had said over 41
lives from the 93 reported cases in some 10 states of the federation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prof Adewole, at a joint ministerial
news conference on the update of the outbreak of the disease, said there were
no new confirmed cases or deaths in the last 48 hours.
“In the last 48 hours, the government raised a four-man
expert committee, chaired by Professor Michael Asuzu, to visit Kano, Niger and
Bauchi, the three most endemic states. The committee will embark on a fact
finding mission, assess the current situation, document response experiences,
identify gaps and proffer recommendations on how to prevent future
occurrences,” Adewole said.
Further, the minister maintained that the task of the
committee was not to apportion blame but rather to document lessons learnt for
better planning of an affective responsive; stressing that long term plan is to
establish an inter-ministerial committee to deliver a final blow on Lassa fever
and other related diseases.
This committee, he said, comprised of the ministers of
Education, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environment, Information and
Culture as well as Health, advising communities to improve on their hygiene, particularly
on food and food protection practices.
In addition, he enjoined the public to shun contact with
rodents as well as food contaminated with rat’s secretions and excretions. Even
as “Avoid drying food in the open and along roadsides. It is also important to
cover all foods to prevent rodent contamination.”
The affected states, he said, include Bauchi, Nasarawa,
Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Plateau, Gombe and Oyo, just as he assured
that government and other stakeholders are working tirelessly to address the
outbreak and bring it to timely end.
He said the ministry had ordered for the immediate release
of adequate quantities of “ribavirin”, the specific antiviral drug for Lassa
fever, to the affected states for prompt treatment of cases.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) further noted that the first
case of the current outbreak was reported from Bauchi in November 2015.
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