Benue confirms one case of Lassa fever

The Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Sunday Ongbabo, on Tuesday confirmed that one person has been infected with Lassa fever in the state.

Ongbabo, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent in Makurdi, said the infected woman has been confined at an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in a medical facility within the state for proper treatment.

He also noted that contact tracing of those who might have come in contact with the infected person was ongoing while all measures had been put in place to curtail any spread.

Similarly, the state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Sam Ngishe, corroborated the commissioner, stressing that the Lassa fever patient is responding to treatment.

Ngishe added that they are following up contacts even as the ministry of health has embarked on publicity while arrangements are underway to pay traditional institutions in the state sensitisation visit aimed at creating awareness of the virus in rural vicinities.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Prof. Olusayo Alao, explained that the 40-year-old woman from Okpoga in Okpokwu area of the state tested positive to the Lassa fever virus at the weekend after suspicion heightened when she reported unabating fever.

Alao said that samples taken from the female patient for testing had confirmed the suspicion as he used the opportunity to rule out rumours of any death recorded so far.

“There has been no case of mortality in the state since the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in the country. We got confirmation of only one case at the weekend and she is recovering,” he said.

Alao also emphasised that no health worker in the state had been infected just as he informed that the state’s ministry of health was doing its best to equip workers with necessary items to carry out their duties effectively.

Our correspondent recalls that in October, last year, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed five persons dead from the outbreak of Lassa fever in the state.

Programs Officer, Risk Communications Desk of NCDC, Hanatu Bello, who had made the confirmation at a news conference in Makurdi, said that 21 suspected cases of Lassa fever was received from the state out of which eight cases were confirmed while five infected persons died.

Bello had said that the Centre was in Benue to respond to the Lassa fever outbreak as well as a strange illness in Okpokwu local government area of the state.