Health - Fresh alert on Lassa fever as govt confirms 41 deaths

ECHOES of the Ebola Virus Disease that ravaged six West African countries from March 2014 are reverberating in Nigeria as Lassa fever, also a viral disease, begins laying a trail of deaths across the country.
With officially recorded cases now 93 with 41 deaths, the Federal Government has announced plans to set up an inter-ministerial committee from which ideas would come, as in the case of EVD, that would “deliver a final blow on Lassa fever and other related diseases.”
The committee is to be made up of the ministers of Education, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environment, Information and Culture as well as Health. The government has in the meantime activated the National Emergency Operation Centre and dispatched surveillance officers to states.

In a related development, the Lagos State government yesterday said that no fewer than 10 persons were under close monitoring for Lassa fever.
One of the persons is a primary contact of the confirmed Lassa case in Rivers State, who resides in Lagos and is currently being monitored along with her secondary contacts.
Others are health workers and relatives of three suspected cases who died at General Hospital Mushin; Alafia Tayo Maternity Home, Mushin and 18 Oloje Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin, all of whom are currently being traced by the health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, the Senate on resumption yesterday resolved to invite the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, over the outbreak of Lassa fever in 10 states of the federation. The minister is expected to brief the Committee on Health on measures already taken to combat the disease.
Adewole and  his Information and  Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told journalists at a joint briefing in Abuja that government had  raised a four-man expert committee headed by a Professor of Community Medicine and current President of Society of Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria, Michael Asuzu to visit Niger, Kano and Bauchi, the three most affected states in the country.
“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. We wish to assure all that the task of this committee is not to apportion blame but rather to document lessons learnt for better planning of an effective response,” Adewole said.
He stressed: “As at today, records from our surveillance team show that the number of suspected cases is 93; number of laboratory-confirmed cases, 25 and number of reported deaths, 41, with a case fatality rate of 44.0%.”
A statement by both ministers read: “Since the outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria, the Federal Government has made a number of press statements, briefings and health education programmes through all the available media channels in the country. Today’s briefing is unique because it is a joint ministerial statement with my colleague in the Ministry of Information and Culture. This demonstrates the commitment of the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the welfare of Nigerians is non-negotiable. Provision of adequate information is a critical part of this responsive Government.
‘‘So far, the Federal Government has deployed frontline workers to all affected states, distributed Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials and provided Ribavarin anti-viral drugs for prompt treatment of cases.”
 “We will like to state that given the high index of suspicion, the increasing number of suspected cases may not be out of place, as health practitioners are more likely to include Lassa fever as a differential diagnosis in their health care facilities.
However, the good news is that there have been no new confirmed cases or deaths in the last 48 hours.”
The Ministers reiterated some preventive measures to avert further spread of the infection, saying: “The public is hereby advised to avoid spreading or drying of food items on the road side or outdoors; keep all food containers sealed; avoid eating food suspected to be contaminated with rodents feces or urine; throw away food that is partly consumed by rodents; wash hands regularly and food items thoroughly before consumption.
All suspected cases should be reported promptly to State Epidemiologists and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)/Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH).
“We wish to state again that healthcare workers seeing individuals with suspected Lassa fever should immediately contact the state epidemiologist in the state Ministry of Health or call the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Federal Ministry of Health using the following numbers:  08093810105, 08163215251, 08031571667 and 08135050005.’’
The Senate’s decision to invite Adewole followed a motion of urgent national importance moved by Senator Olanrewaju Tejuoso, All Progressives Congress (APC, Ogun Central) and co-sponsored by five others.

The upper legislative chamber also urged the Federal Government, health agencies as well as non-governmental organisations to embark on aggressive campaign in strategic places across the country to further educate the public on preventive measures against Lassa fever.

But contrary to the rumour making the rounds that Lassa fever is already in Lagos, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said that none of the three suspected cases were tested positive.
Idris told reporters that the first suspected case was a 47-year-old woman who was referred to General Hospital, Mushin from a private health facility on January 7, 2016 with three-day history of sore throat; frequent watery stooling of eight hours duration; difficulty in breathing of one hour duration and widespread haemorrhage on the body.

The patient later died few minutes after reaching the hospital but result of laboratory investigation was negative for Lassa fever, Idris said.
The other cases including a 31-year-old woman from Nassarawa State and a 24-year-old house maid who returned from Taraba State, brought by her relations to Mainland Hospital, Yaba on January 8, 2016 on account of fever, vomiting and diarrhea also tested negative for Lassa fever.
Idris said the state had, however, intensified efforts on contact tracing among other measures.

The Guardian News