The Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Makurdi, Dr Peteru Inunduh, Tuesday, said the facility recorded 15 cases of Lassa fever within the past eight months.
He made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists in his office in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
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He also said there had been no reported cases of monkeypox in the hospital or the state but that Lassa fever and other infectious diseases had placed the state in an endemic zone of contagious illnesses.
The CMD added that the health institution under his watch had therefore constructed an Infectious Diseases Care Centre (IDCC) otherwise known as isolation centre for the treatment of such cases.
“The hospital has recorded 15 cases so far. Benue State is in an endemic zone of infectious diseases like Lassa fever, so there is no debate about that.
“We have an isolation centre or an (Infectious Diseases Care Centre) that is 90 per cent completed at the permanent site because it is conceptualised on the fact that we live in an environment of infectious diseases like Lassa fever, Yellow fever, cholera, monkeypox, COVID-19 and others,” he said.
Inunduh further noted that the International Organisation for Standards (IOS) has also approved the establishment of a world-class standard centre for infectious diseases at the hospital, adding that the facility would be inaugurated next month.
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