Lassa Fever Spreads to 17 States

The cases of Lassa fever have extended to Lagos, Niger, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Kano, Rivers, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara, Ekiti, Benue, Delta, Edo, Bauchi, Oyo, Gombe and FCT.
The Minister of health, Prof Isaac Adewole disclosed this in Abuja at an emergency Council on Health meeting. According to the Minister, suspected cases of the virus in the country have risen to 212 across 62 Local Governments, as confirmed by 33 laboratories.
The Minister warned States against ‘conspiracy of silence’ to enable the Ministry come up with quick interventions where fresh cases are reported to save the citizens from further health danger.
“I want to warn against the conspiracy of silence by in some states. This is because we recorded five unreported cases of Lassa fever and one death in Ebonyi state. Even the state governor got angry.”
“I want to tell all Nigerians that the Lassa fever disease is real because there is a lot of denial in the country”

The minister said 5,000 Primary Health Care centres would be activated before the end of 2016.
“A committee had already been set up to map out health care centres across the country would benefit from the programme.
He advised health practitioners on the need to maintain good professional practice with reference to the case in Rivers state where a healthcare provider was infected.
The Minister used the opportunity to debunk the rumor making the rounds that the ‘’alarm’’ was a ploy to make quick money from the government.

As packaged by (Anthony Okufu).