LASSA FEVER ALERT! Pregnant Woman & One Confirmed Dead, 100 LUTH Staff Under Surveillance

The dreadful Lassa Fever has killed two people, including a pregnant woman in Lagos state as 100 Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, workers who had contact with the victims had been placed under surveillance, Vanguard reports.

Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof Chris Bode, who confirmed the situation said no less than 100 hospital workers exposed to the index case were currently being monitored.

According to him, the patients died after spending a few days in admission.

”Each of these two patients presented very late and died in spite of efforts to salvage them. The first was a 39-year-old pregnant lady with bleeding disorder who died after a stillbirth.”

Speaking about the pregnant woman, Bode stated that a post-mortem examination had been conducted before her Lassa fever status was eventually suspected and confirmed.

He added that a resident doctor from the Department of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology who took part in the autopsy was later confirmed with the disease and is currently on admission and responding well to treatment at the Isolation Ward of LUTH.

He also revealed that two other suspected cases from Lagos State were also presently admitted and quarantined while undergoing confirmatory laboratory tests.

Mr. Bode, who visited the isolation centre, enjoined all LUTH workers to maintain a heightened level of alert in the wake of this new outbreak and observe universal precautions in handling all suspected cases of this viral hemorrhagic fever.

He said the teaching hospital has been working closely with officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health in handling a number of diseases of pubic importance such as rabies, cholera, Lassa fever and the recent diarrhoea disease at the Queen’s College, Lagos.

”Both the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Health have responded swiftly to contain this present Lassa fever outbreak by mobilising human and material resources to trace the sources and extent of the disease, follow up on potential contacts, identify early and test suspected cases,” he said.

The doctor said the health facility has adequate materials for containment of the disease while drugs have been made available to treat anyone confirmed with the disease.