No fewer than four people have been confirmed dead following the outbreak of Lassa Fever in Nasarawa State.
The Chief Medical Director at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia, Dr Hassan Ikrama, disclosed this in Lafia while briefing journalists on the outbreak on Wednesday.
Daily Trust gathered that two of the dead people are doctors.
The names of the doctors, who lost their lives to Lassa Fever were given as Dr Oga Esa-Ochapa and Dr Victor Nwatu-Mbanefor.
Dr Esa-Ochapa died on the 14th of December, 2021 while Dr Nwatu-Mbanefor died on Sunday 5th December, 2021.
The other two victims are a mother and her baby, it was learnt.
The baby died in the Special Baby Care Unit (SBCU) of DASH while the mother, who was operated upon two times on the dreadful disease, died in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.
It was also gathered that the doctors developed a symptom in Abuja shortly after an operation.
Daily Trust gathered that they were being treated for the disease in Abuja where they had travelled to, to spend time with their families, before they died.
Dr Ikrama explained that after the management of the hospital got the wind of the news of the death of the two doctors who carried out the operation on the victims, it started contact tracing of those people within the hospital to ensure that it prevents the spread of the disease across the state.
According to him, those health workers in the hospital who came in contact with the woman have been identified, adding that tests have been carried out on them and all of them have tested negative to the Lassa Fever.
“As it is now, all our staff are safe. We had already heightened awareness of Lassa Fever among our staff.
“We have trained everybody in the hospital on preventive and control of the Lassa Fever in the state”, he said while expressing confidence that the situation had been brought under control.
He, therefore, urged the people of the State not to be panic.
While expressing concerns over the non-availability of testing centres in the state, he affirmed that efforts were being made by the state government to have testing centres, not only for Lassa Fever but also for yellow fever and other related diseases across the state.
Our correspondent, who went around the hospital, sighted a cluster of doctors, nurses, patients and relatives of some of the victims discussing the outbreak of the disease.
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