Rat threatens Nigeria
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.
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