Lassa fever kills nurse, undertaker in Ogun

…As Health Commissioner assures residents of safety

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NIGERIA: THE dreaded disease, Lassa fever, has killed an undertaker, identified as Okusaga, and an Assistant Chief Nursing Officer, Omobolanle Adesuyi, at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

The deceased persons, GatewayMail learnt, died following their infection with the killer disease after their contacts with an alleged Lebanese patient in the hospital‎.

The GatewayMail further gathered that the 43-year-old nurse, who joined FMC in 2001, had innocently contracted the virus while administering medications on the patient, who later died while on admission.

Similarly, the undertaker, who was infected while bathing the corpse of the Lebanese, died last Friday, and has been buried by the family in Ijebu-Ode.

It was further gathered that the deceased had just completed his National Youth Service Corps service to join his parents’ business of undertaking.

According to reliable source, the deceased family is said to be in charge of the hospital mortuary on contract.

On Tuesday morning, when our correspondent visited the hospital, the staffers were seen in sad mood, just as the nurses and other medical workers abandoned the emergency treatment room, where the Lebanese was treated, for fear of contracting the disease.

The management of the hospital has, however, cancelled the planned Christmas carol scheduled for Tuesday, apparently to honour the deceased nurse and the undertaker.

When contacted, the Acting Medical Director of the hospital, Kehinde Hunyinbo, confirmed the incident, adding that the management had commenced full investigations to unravel the circumstances that led to the development.

Hunyinbo said: “It is true and we have commenced investigation into it, having contacted the Ministry of Health.  On the Lebanese you mentioned, that is another pointer to what to be investigated, but we can’t establish that now.”

He added that the investigation would not be limited to the hospital as efforts would be made to trace all those who had contacts with the victims to get to the root of the matter.

The hospital has called on workers who had contact with the nurse to report at its Clinical Services section.

“It has been confirmed that this hard working Nurse died of Lassa fever.  We are using this medium to call on any staff that have direct contact with her to report to the office of Head of Clinical Services by 9.00am for further and necessary action,” a notice on the FMC news on Facebook said.

Meanwhile, the state’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, has allayed the fears of residents, assuring that government has always been proactive to issues of public health.

Ipaye said that the Health Ministry in collaboration with FMC would quickly set up an isolation center at the premises to attend to emergencies relating to the disease.

The Commissioner urged the nurses to always attend to all patients in the most hygienically acceptable manner.

“We are going to immediately create an isolation center here at FMC to cater for unexpected cases and emergency on public health issues like Lassa fever to include others communicable diseases.  I have sent medical officers out to confirm the root of the case,” Ipaye assured.

He explained that continuous sensitization has been ongoing on the need for the public to keep maintaining high sense of medical and personal hygiene.

According to him, the sensitization also requires urging the people to get rid of rats in and around the house, ensure that all foodstuffs are well covered at all times and engage in constant hand washing.