Edo State epidemiologist, Ministry of Health, Dr Uwa Okhuarobo, has disclosed that the state has recorded 29 deaths out of the 225 confirmed cases of Lassa fever between January and September this year.
He also said that the state has recorded 15 confirmed cases of monkeypox with no causalities.
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Dr Okhuarobo who disclosed this on Tuesday in a chat with Daily Trust said the Lassa fever cases spread across 11 local governments of the state.
“We have recorded 225 confirmed cases of Lassa fever, out of the number, we lost 29 persons between January and September and that makes our Lassa fever fatality rate 13 per cent”.
He explained that 11 local governments are affected by the Lassa fever, adding that the four local governments with the highest-burden include Etsako West, Esan West, Esan North-East and Esan Central.
“For monkeypox, we have 15 confirmed cases between January and September; we didn’t record any death and all confirmed cases have recovered”.
According to him, the 15 confirmed cases are spread around five local governments of Oredo, Egor, Ikpoba Okha, Uhumwonde and Esan West.
He said the response to the infectious disease control in the state is not new but they are taking measures to sustain the response and rid the state of infectious diseases.
Dr Okhuarobo said the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, has given an executive order to the local governments that have a high burden of Lassa fever to put machinery in place to ensure that Lassa fever cases are brought to the barest minimum.
“The governor wants to see that Lassa fever is kicked out of Edo state. So far, the local government has taken ownership of the responses to the public health activities.
“We are approaching the Lassa fever and monkeypox the same way, as both are zoonotic diseases. This means that infections are transmitted from animal to human” he said.
The doctor further said that they have been sensitizing the people on personal hygiene, housekeeping, and good waste management practices, as well as stopping the indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
“Our goal is to sustain the infection disease response because the peak of Lassa fever is between December and January and this has been the trend in the last five years. So, we are bringing stakeholders together to plan ahead for the coming season and strategically target public health intervention in the affected local government” he said.
