‘No case of lassa fever in Ogun’

The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye has said that reports from the Diseases Surveillance Officers (DSO), across the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas of the state have shown that there was no case of Lassa fever in the state. Ipaye made this known while fielding questions from […]

The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye has said that reports from the Diseases Surveillance Officers (DSO), across the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas of the state have shown that there was no case of Lassa fever in the state.

Ipaye made this known while fielding questions from journalists in his office in Abeokuta, on the possible spread of Lassa fever to Ogun as it has affected its neighbouring State, Ondo.  

He said: "Lassa fever is a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus and since its original discovery in Nigeria in1969, there have been countless outbreaks of the disease with varying magnitude and severity across  West Africa. But due to scarce resources to diagnose the illness as well as inadequate surveillance, many cases remain unaccounted for"‎.

He said the state government had adopted the standard of the World Health Organization (WHO), in following precautions in hospitals as well as communities , as well as educating the public on the mode of transmission of the virus.

The commissioner said that three isolation centres created by the state in Sagamu, Iberekodo, and Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, were functioning for proper care of infected persons in the state, adding that health care service delivery was the second cardinal programme of the present administration. 

He said that if any persons contacted the disease, the infected persons should be isolated and their body fluid and excrements properly disposed, advising that health care workers ‎should also take proper precautions in order to curtail nosocomical spread of disease through the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).