Lassa Fever Kills 28-Year-Old In Abia

A 28-year-old-man from Avomkwu has been confirmed killed following the outbreak of Lassa fever in Abia State.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Emole Egbulefu, disclosed this to reporters on Tuesday on behalf of the state government.

He noted that the victim died on Wednesday last week at the Federal Medical Centre in the state, not long after he was taken to the medical facility.

Egbulefu said, “Facilities are available to contain this disease; for this one that has happened, we’ve lost only one person who is the index patient at FMC and all the contacts with this index patient have been identified.

He explained that the new case was recorded at the Olokoro area in Umuahia South Local Government Area of the state.

Stressing that the incident was the first case to be reported in 2020, the government official restated that there was no cause for alarm as they were already on top of the situation.

Egbulefu noted that the recent case was the fourth to be recorded in the state between 1999 to date, adding that the government would do everything possible to contain the spread of the disease.

According to him, all the contacts with the index patient have been placed on critical surveillance and there is no reason for the people to panic.

The permanent secretary said, “Lassa fever is a major public health challenge in Nigeria, and it occurs throughout the year.

“Here we have just had it for the fourth time and each time we have been able to control it.”

“We do not want the public to panic; we only want people to know that this disease has a cure and it is only early diagnosis that will save any patient from dying,” he added.