Lassa fever kills nine in Ondo state

The deadly Lassa fever has reportedly killed no fewer than nine people in Ondo State, while 102 cases have been recorded in the state.

It was also gathered that the cases of the deadly disease were recorded in eight local government areas of the state.



Governor Rotimi Akeredolu made the assertion on Saturday in a state media broadcast on the Lassa fever incident in the state, which was monitored by our correspondent.

According to the governor, there are 127 hospital contacts and 308 community contacts lines listed in all the affected local government areas.

He revealed that infected patients were being managed at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, while confirmatory tests were done at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Edo State.

The governor noted that the state government was not relenting in its efforts to contain the spread of the disease, adding that the Emergency Preparedness and Response Team had been reactivated at the state and local government levels in addition to active surveillance and contact tracing in the affected local government areas.

Meanwhile, as part of the effort to curtail the spread of the deadly disease in the state, the Ondo State Government ordered health officials in the state to monitor the burial of casualties.

The government also ordered that any occurrence of sudden death should be reported to the health officials in the local government for supervision of the burial.

The Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro, gave the directive at a meeting held with primary health care coordinators in the 18 local government areas of the state in Akure, the state capital.

The commissioner said, “The state government has not relented in our efforts to contain the disease. We have already mobilised our surveillance team to all the local government areas.”