Serving Medical Doctor dies of Lassa Fever
A medical doctor serving in Kaduna State has died from Lassa Fever.
The Kaduna State Government confirmed the death on Monday. A female nurse was also a victim of the outbreak outbreak of Lassa fever in parts of the state.
The state Commissioner for Health and Human Resources, Prof. Jonathan Nok, said the victims died after testing positive to the disease at Saint Luis Hospital in Zonkwa, Zango Kataf Local Government Area.
The Corps member was serving at the hospital, and the nurse worked in the children community health care centre.
The laboratory tests were conducted at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NC DC and Lassa Fever Centre in Edo State, where the results were confirmed positive.
The kaduna state government is taking measures to curtail further spread of the disease in the state by contact tracing and isolating those who have started showing symptoms of the disease.
The commissioner stated that “ the corpse of the medical doctor is currently deposited at Jos University Teaching Hospital, while that of the nurse is at the Mortuary at Zonkwa.”
He said: “We are also tracing all the contacts there and we have been able to trace substantial number of persons believed to have had contact with the deceased.”
Nok appealed to residents to take all necessary measures and avoid drying of tomato and pepper as well as other items in open environment.
If you’re serving in Kaduna, please do not panic. Corps members should be extra careful at this point in time and maintain clean surroundings where ever we live. We can also use the opportunity to enlighten those in our communities, especially the students we teach, on the benefits of cleanliness.