Lassa fever hits Kaduna and Ebonyi state, Kills doctor, nurse, Pregnant Woman and a boy on HWN LASSA

A pregnant woman and two health workers have been confirmed dead following the outbreak of Lassa fever in Kaduna.

The three people including a medical doctor who was undergoing his national youth service year as a corp and a community health nurse died at the Saint Louis Hospital in Zonkwa, area of Zango Kataf local government of the state.

The doctor and the nurse it would be recalled contacted the lassa fever disease after conducting an operation on a pregnant woman who later died of the same disease two weeks ago.

Confirming the outbreak, the state commissioner for health, Professor Jonathan Andrew Nok told journalists, that two weeks ago, there was a pregnant woman that visited the Saint Louis Hospital after she was referred from a clinic in Kamuru.

She was pregnant and an operation was conducted on her by the doctor and nurse. She subsequently died.

Ebonyi State, weekend, recorded its second confirmed case of Lassa Fever as a 10-year-old boy in Igbeagu in Izzi Local Government died from the disease.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezuruike, who confirmed the death of the boy, said the victim died after he was discharged from Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, FETHA.

The Commissioner described the incident as unfortunate, adding that the deceased was a day student in one of the primary schools in the state.

Dr. Umezuruike said the boy's parents were based in Abuja, but that the report before them did not show that the deceased travelled to meet with his parents in recent times.

He also explained that the 10-year old was not rushed to the hospital immediately he became sick, adding that he responded to treatment at first and as such the hospital discharged him.

Umezuruike said: But unfortunately, he died the same day he was discharged. His case was surprising because the hospital thought he was all right after the treatment. Before he was discharged, we took his sample which later came out positive.

Umezuruike also confirmed that the case was the second recorded in the state, adding that "the first person was a student of Ebonyi State University.

He said the Ministry of Health had begun surveillance and tracing of close associates of the last victim to enable them curtail the spread of the disease in the state.

Source: Leadership, Vanguard, HWN Africa.