• Disease kills doctor in Rivers, 60 placed under surveillance
Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt, Omololu Ogunmade and Paul
Obi in Abuja
Following the outbreak of the deadly Lassa virus in Abuja, the
federal government on Thursday commenced contact tracing of
35 persons said to have had contact with the patient who died
from the disease in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Though the patient’s identity was yet to be made public, the
health authorities confirmed that the person died on
Wednesday at the National Hospital, Abuja.
The latest death from Lassa fever brings the total number of
deaths to 43 in the country in 10 states of the federation.
Prof. Abudulsalam Nasidi, Coordinator, Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC), who confirmed the effort at contact
tracing, also said 15 persons had been placed under
surveillance in the city.
The number of people under surveillance, according to him,
might increase before the end of yesterday, as the scope of
contact tracing widens.
This is the second time a deadly virus has compelled the
Nigerian health authorities to use contact tracing to monitor
persons who have come in close contact with a carrier of an
infectious disease.
During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Nigeria won global praise
for its effective contact tracing mechanism, which kept the
disease from spiralling into an epidemic after the first patient,
Mr. Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, flew into Nigeria with the
disease.
Like the Ebola virus, Lassa fever is spread by animals, but this
time rats which transfer the disease when they come in
contact with food and environments infested by rats.
Speaking on other efforts to contain the disease, the
spokesperson of the National Hospital, Mr. Tayo Hastrup, said
the hospital was setting up an isolation centre for treatment
of Lassa fever, assuring the public that hospital workers are
prepared for such cases should there be a recurrence.
Hastrup also revealed that the test conducted on another
suspected patient was negative. He assured FCT residents
that the hospital was adequately prepared and ready to deal
with any emergency.
The dead patient was said to have been rushed to the National
Hospital after eight days in a private hospital in Kubwa, a
satellite town in FCT.
According to the Medical Director of National Hospital, Dr. Jack
Momoh, “The patient was brought in unconscious from a
private hospital in Kubwa where he was admitted for eight
days.
“The 33-year-old was recently married and lived in Jos,
Plateau State but had come to see a family member in Kubwa
because of his illness. He however died within 24 hours of
admission at the National Hospital.”
Meanwhile, in Minna, Niger State, which has recorded 16
deaths, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, yesterday
assured Nigerians that plans were underway to strengthen the
Lassa fever alert system for effective monitoring of the
disease in the country.
The minister made this known during a courtesy call on the
governor of the state, Alhaji Abubakar Bello.
Adewole noted that it was the failure of the notification
system that made it impossible for the ministry to respond
promptly to the situation in Niger State, adding that the
federal government’s mission and mandate in the health sector
is to keep every Nigerian safe.
He said all hands must be on deck to sustain the current effort
to stem the spread of the disease by ensuring that the Federal
Ministry of Health is immediately notified of any strange death
or disease, because, adding: “Every life counts and every death
also counts.”
The minister also urged the general public to avoid contact
with rodents/rats as well as food/objects contaminated with
rat secretion/excretion.
In his remarks, the Niger State Commissioner for Health and
Health Services, Dr. Mustapha Jibril, explained that despite the
delay in notification and unwillingness of the people to give
information, the state government swung into action with the
support of the federal government, World Health Organisation
(WHO) and other relevant agencies to nip the disease in the
bud.
On the 16 deaths recorded at Fuka ward, Muyan Local
Government Area of Niger State, the minister who visited the
area said: “So far things are under control in areas visited but
I will advise the state and local government councils where
deaths were recorded in Niger State to put an alert system in
place to enable us track new cases whenever they happen.”
The minister also ordered the immediate renovation of the
Primary Healthcare Centre in Fuka and reposition it to render
24 hours service.
Adewole gave the directive to the Executive Director, National
Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado
Muhammad, when he visited the community where 16 people
were killed by the current Lassa fever outbreak on January 13.
The minister noted that if the primary health care centre had
been operational, it would have alerted the Federal Ministry of
Health at the onset of the outbreak of the disease in the
community and prompt response would have saved lives.
While sympathising with the community head and members of
the village, Adewole encouraged them to report to the health
officials as soon as they feel ill for immediate and effective
diagnosis.
He also cautioned against self-medication and resort to
traditional care, informing them that there are specific drugs
for the treatment of Lassa fever in hospitals.
But just as the minister announced that there had been no
medical personnel infected with the disease, there were
reports from the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital
(BMSH) in Port Harcourt in Rivers State that a medical
doctor, Levi Ijamala, had succumbed to the virus.
Chairman of the Rivers State branch of the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA), Dr. Furo Green, confirmed the death of Dr.
Ijamala in Port Harcourt yesterday at a news conference on
the three-day warning strike embarked upon by medical doctors
in public hospitals and primary healthcare facilities to protest
the spate of abductions of their colleagues by unknown
gunmen.
Green, who stated that 50 per cent of those infected by the
dreaded virus, in most cases, lose their lives, lamented that
“medical doctors who have direct contact with such patients
are usually those who primarily become victims of such
contagious diseases”.
“While we are not happy to go on strike, the strike now
appears to be a blessing in disguise because fewer doctors and
patients came to the hospital today, thereby reducing the rate
of personal contact among medical doctors and patients,” he
said.
Green, who is a consultant at BMSH, confirmed that Ijamala,
who worked at the Disease Control Unit of the same hospital,
had contacted the virus while treating patients infected by the
virus.
The chairman of the Rivers State NMA disclosed that officials
of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the state had
visited the hospital to assess the situation.
He added that the remains of Ijamala had been buried in
accordance with WHO protocols for victims of contagious
diseases.
Meanehile, Adewole while appearing before the Senate
Committee on Health in Abuja yesterday, described the
outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria which had claimed over 40
lives as a national embarrassment.
Adewole, who made this remarks when he appeared before the
Senate Committee on Health, said the disease is native to three
West African countries of Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
He said it was surprising that the disease which had been in
Nigeria for decades has refused to go away, noting that unlike
Ebola which was alien to the nation, Lassa fever has been in
existence in Nigeria for decades.
“Unlike Ebola, which took the nation by surprise last year,
after being imported from Liberia by an infected person, Lassa
fever which has over the years registered its presence in the
country , supposed not to have taken us by surprise, but had
infected people reported promptly,” he said.
According to him, the current outbreak began in August last
year in Foka village in Niger State but has snowballed into an
epidemic across nine states of the federation because its
infection as well as death of victims were not promptly
reported to appropriate authorities.
He said the Foka incident in Niger State last year killed no
fewer than 17 villagers in quick succession without any prompt
report to the state government due to superstitious beliefs
that once a new market is being opened in the area, some
people must lose their lives as a form of rituals for the
commemoration of the new village market.
Hence, he said inhabitants of the village did not initially see the
deaths as resulting from a strange ailment until the child of a
village school headmaster died in December.
Adewole disclosed that nine laboratories had been designated
across the country for prompt detection of the infectious virus
usually transmitted by rodents to man.
The six functioning laboratories, he said, are located in
Ibadan, Abuja, Maiduguri, Kano, Irrua and Lagos.
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