Dear
Colleagues,
It s with
great expectation that we apprioach 2017 NEC KADUNA this week - Lassa Fever not
new to nigeria continues to take doctors life and other Nigerians .
We look
forwrad to a robust message to A ll Nigerians from NMA in Kaduna that our
cities and villages are too unkempt with poor sanitation which encourages the
growth of Rats and Lassa Fever: READ ON
Lassa Fever
Contact Rises To 106 In Ogun
Lassa-fever
The Ogun
State Government on Sunday said that the number of suspected contacts of the
Lassa fever had risen to 106.
The
Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, who disclosed this in a telephone
interview, however, allayed the fear of the public
He said that
the state government was putting in place necessary measures to contain the
spread.
Ipaye had on
Friday disclosed that no fewer than 66 persons had had contact with the
patient.
A
22-year-old male patient (name withheld) had on Thursday been placed under
medical observation at the State Hospital, Ijaiye, Abeokuta over Lassa fever
infection.
Ipaye said
all the contacts had been given thermometers to measure their temperature, with
health and surveillance officers of the state government deployed to monitor
them daily for 21 days.
“You don’t
take Lassa fever contacts to isolation centre; you only monitor their level of
temperature. It is not like the Ebola disease where you take contacts to
isolation centres.
“Initially
we had 66 contacts when I briefed you on Friday. Between then and now, we have
additional 40 contacts. So, now, we are monitoring 106 contacts.
The
commissioner, however, noted that not all contacts that met the patient during
his travel to the hospital had been established.
“All the 66
were care-providers in all the hospitals that he had been treated. We also had
to go to his house to decontaminate it. So, everybody that lives around there
is a primary contact one way or the other; just to play safe.
“We have to
monitor their temperature for 21 days. That was what we did for over 1,800
people we followed the other time. We had to monitor their temperature minimum
of twice daily – morning and evening.
“And the
contacts must come up to tell us the reading immediately. We have given all of
them thermometers and we have taught them how to measure temperature.
“So, when we
call them they will tell us what the temperature is in the morning and in the
evening and they will do this for 21 days. If after 21 days there is no fever
of any type, then that patient is discharged from our contacts.
“But if
there is fever, we will take him and put him in an isolated place and do the
test quickly. So, if the test is negative we will discharge him. If the test is
positive, then we start treating the person.
“But we do
not have any problem for now,” Ipaye said. ’’
Africa Center for Clin Gov Research &
Patient Safety
@ HRI West Africa
Group - HRI WA
Consultants in
Clinical Governance Implementation
Publisher: Health and
Medical Journals
8 Amaku Street Housing
Estate, Calabar
Cross River State, Nigeria
Cross River State, Nigeria
Phone No.
+234 (0) 8063600642
Joseph Ana has a cumulative continuous practice experience of over 40-years in
Nigeria, United Kingdom and Ghana as a Primary Health Care Physician, Public
Health Expert, General and Urological Surgeon, Health Policy Expert and
Implementer, Medical Educator and Trainer..
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