Information reaching us in Greenbarge Reporters has indicated the entry of Lassa fever into Kuje, one of the Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Investigation by our team of reporters showed how some medical doctors treated the case of a middle age man who reported at the Kuje General Hospital with suspected case of Lassa fever.
It was found out that the victim who came from Nasarawa state has been referred to another hospital even as the head of the hospital removed the medical history of the suspected victim from his file.
Efforts by our reporters to get the Medical Director of the hospital to speak on the incident was unsuccessful as she was said to have gone out of the premises at the time the Greenbarge Reporters’ team arrived.
Other medical staff in the hospital struggled to keep their distance from our reporters.
This is even as the Lassa fever is confirmed to have killed no fewer than 101 people in Nigeria over a time span of six months since the outbreak was first reported.
According to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in a statement today, cases of the hemorrhagic disease, both confirmed and suspected, stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths.
The NCDC said that as of today: “19 states, including Abuja, are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases.”
Health authorities say the virus is under control, but that there are fears that the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported.
Large quantities of drugs, including Ribavirin tablets, and bottles of hand sanitizers have been distributed across the country to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
The epidemic was first reported in January, but the first case of the disease occurred in August 2015.
Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected, while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths, according to the NCDC.
In neighboring Benin, at least nine people have died of Lassa, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health authorities said February 2. [myad]
