Lassa fever: Ogun places varsity undergraduate, 18 others on watch list

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NIGERIA: NO fewer than 19 persons have been suspected in Ogun State to have been infected with Lassa fever.

Among them is a female undergraduate of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNNAB and government has decided to place them under close watch, apparently to curtail and prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

Health Commissioner, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, who disclosed this on Tuesday at a press conference in Abeokuta, the state capital, said that the undergraduate had contact with the incident that happened in Ahmadiyyah Hospital, Ojokoro, Lagos State.
The commissioner stated that the 18 other persons were workers of the same hospital residing in the state.

Ipaye added that the undergraduate, who he did not disclose her name, had been given thermometer to monitor her temperature.

The other persons, he said, were being monitored through the Disease Surveillance and Notification officers attached to each of them.
According to him, two suspected cases of the disease were reported last week in the state, but added that clinical examinations on them proved negative.

He explained that the first case of a seven-year-old boy who started vomiting blood after a day old fever was reported at the General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta.

Ipaye stated that the boy was treated and responded to anti-malaria and other antibiotics applied on him.
He also said that another case of a 10-year-old girl, who came from Kaduna State, and began excreting dark stool, was under examination and the ministry is still expecting the result of clinical examination.
Ipaye said: “As a state, we are being extremely proactive, we do not have a confirmed case of Lassa fever in Ogun State, but in the last three days, we have two reported suspected cases, but I need to let you know that none of these cases has been confirmed to be Lassa fever.”
He added: “I also wish to state that the 19 primary contacts with the index case of Lagos are under monitoring through our active surveillance system.”
“We’ve kept vigilance of them for 12 days.  As you are aware, the incubation period of Lassa is 21 days, we still have about nine days to keep a close look at them,” Ipaye said.

According to him, there has been no sign of any symptoms in the 19 primary contacts.

The commissioner stressed: “We are still monitoring other secondary contacts, others who have contacts with these 19 cases. One of the primary contacts is a 24-year-old female student of Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta here.”

“We see her every day and we’ve given her thermometer to monitor her temperature on daily basis because she is a student, but she hasn’t shown any symptom of Lassa fever and we will continue to monitor her for the next 10 days,” he said.

Ipaye stated that the state had developed an Epidemic Preparedness Strategy by setting up two isolation centers in Iberekodo area of Abeokuta and a facility in Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.

• By Olabamiji Oluwatobi