Lassa fever will become history by April - FG

The Federal Government has declared that lassa fever will be eradicated from the country by April 2016.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole who spoke with The PUNCH in Abuja, on Wednesday, said that the family in Kubwa who was visited by a victim of the virus has been placed under surveillance along with the hospital where he was treated. 

He also said that the hospital where the victim was on admission before his transfer to National Hospital, Abuja would not be allowed to receive any visitors or patients until it is sanitized.

The 33 years old man who was visiting Abuja from Jos in Plateau State had died barely 24 hours after he was admitted in National Hospital.

“We want to assure Nigerians that Lassa fever will soon become a thing of the past. It will become history in Nigeria. Ordinarily, Lassa fever will be eradicated from Nigeria in April. But if we do nothing, it will come back by August. So, we will make sure that we work all-year round to make sure that there is no resurgence in August.

“Our target is to eradicate it in April. Even if we have one or two cases, we will treat them early because all our antennae will be out to treat any case.

“Not just the families that the patient visited in Kubwa but also those who treated him (have been placed under surveillance). We are working on that, we don’t want to frighten anybody. But I can assure you that our officials are all over the place to make sure that we place them under surveillance. It is all in their interest, not that we want to frighten them.”

Responding to a question as to whether the hospital that treated the victim would be completely shut down, the Minister had this to say :

“When you say shut down, we don’t want to physically shut down the place. But when the hospital is under surveillance, no patient will be allowed to go there until we declare the place safe and that is the situation in the Kubwa hospital.”

He however, added that the ward in the National Hospital where the victim was admitted and the mortuary where he was kept had been decontaminated.

Source: The PUNCH