Lassa fever hits Jigawa, kills one

Jigawa State Government has confirmed the death of one person as a result of Lassa fever outbreak.

The state also disclosed that over 26 others persons who had contact with the decease were currently under surveillance.

Confirming the sad development, Commissioner of Health, Dr Abba Zakar, said the victim who until his death resided at Gujubaki village in Dutse Local Government area of the state, had just returned from Port Harcourt in Rivers State and reported to Dutse General Hospital with signs and symptoms suggestive of Lassa fever.

The commissioner explained that immediately the hospital management noticed the case, it contacted the state ministry of health.

According to him, the ministry immediately sent its Rapid Response Team, RRT, which consisted three Doctors, Disease Notification Officers, DNOs, and an Epidemiologist to examine the victim and take sample of his blood.

He said the blood sample was taken to a laboratory in Abuja where it was confirmed positive, lamenting that the victim died later the same day he reported to the hospital.

The commissioner said: “Unfortunately, about a week ago, that was exactly on January 25, an 18 year old Safiyanu Usaini, from Gujubaki village in Dutse town, who had travelled to one of the infected states, specially Port Harcourt, reported to Dutse General Hospital.”

Source ; Dailypost

The death toll for Lassa fever keeps rising everyday. What are we not doing right? Are we preventing the transmission from rat to human and from human to human? Why is the diagnosis taking so long? Why is the treatment not started on time? Are the drugs readily available? Or may be patients are not presenting to the hospital on time? A lot of questions to be answered.

Remember that prevention is better than cure.