From Kemi Yesufu
Minister
of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole yesterday disclosed how a patient
suspected to have contracted Lassa fever absconded from Irrua Specialist
Teaching Hospital in Edo State.
The unnamed patient was said to have been referred to the hospital from Ebonyi State.
The minister, who was briefed on the
development during a meeting with stakeholders on the disease, directed
the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) coordinator to fish out the
suspected patient by all means and return him to the diagnostic centre.
To effectively combat the disease, the
minister launched the National Lassa Lassa Fever Action Committee headed
by Professor Oyewole Tomori.
This was just as he expressed worry on
the continued spread of Lassa fever. He stressed that a good number of
states, where the virus has been detected, had fallen short in their
response to the disease.
Adewole stressed that it was
disappointing that states considered as ‘red states’ expect the Federal
Government to purchase basic treatment drugs like Riboflavin for them.
Those infected with the Lassa fever
virus, which is primarily carried by the ‘multimammate rat’, have been
found in Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba, Edo, Kano, Ekiti, Lagos, Delta,
Anambra, Plateau, Oyo, Rivers, Ondo, among others.
The minister, who spoke during the
National Council of Health meeting held in Abuja, further said some
states had refused to take up the fight against the disease, by
providing logistics and other interventions to protect those in the
states, saying they tend to rely on the Federal Government or the
proverbial ‘federal might’ to provide necessary funding, even in
emergency situations.
This was even as Adewole expressed regret
over the presence of few diagnostic health centres, where specimen can
be taken to, saying the situation where suspected patients are
transported long distances either to Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital
in Edo State or Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was not too
good for the control of the disease.
SOURCE: urhokpota reporters.
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