Female Undergraduate Under Contact Watch For Lassa Fever With 18 Others
Female Undergraduate Under Contact Watch For Lassa Fever With 18 Others
Ogun State government said yesterday that it had placed 19 people, including a female undergraduate student of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNNAB) suspected to have contacted the Lassa fever under contact watch.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babtunde Ipaye who spoke at a press conference in Abeokuta, the State capital said the undergraduate had contact with the “index case” recorded in Ahmadiyyah Hospital in Ojokoro area of Lagos state According to him, the 18 other cases are workers of the same hospital but reside in Ogun State.
Ipaye said the undergraduate (name withheld) had been given thermometer to monitor her temperature while other cases have a “Disease Surveillance and Notification officers attached to each of them.”
The Commissioner explained that two suspected cases of lassa were reported last week in the state but that clinical examinations did not support the fever.
Ipaye explained that the first case of a seven year old boy who started vomiting blood after a day old fever was reported in General Hospital, Ijaye in Abeokuta but was treated and responded to anti-malaria and other antibiotics.
According to him another suspected case of a 10-year-old girl who arrived from Kaduna “and started passing dark stool is under examination and expecting the result of clinical examination”.He said, “As a state, we are being extremely proactive, we do not have a confirmed case of lassa in Ogun State, but in the last three days, we have two reported suspected cases, but I need to let you know that none of these cases has been confirmed to be lassa fever.
“I also wish to state that the 19 primary contacts with the index case of Lagos are under monitoring through our active surveillance system”.
“We have kept vigilance of them for 12 days, as you are aware, the incubation period of lassa is 21 days, we still have about nine days to keep a close look at them but I need to let you know that in the last 12 to 14 days, we have not seen any symptoms in these 19 primary contacts”.
His words “We are still monitoring other secondary contacts, others who have contacts with these 19 cases. One of the primary contacts is a 24-year old female student of Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta here, we see her everyday and we have given her thermometer to monitor her temperature on daily basis because she is a student but she hasn’t shown any symptom of lassa fever and we will continue to monitor her for the next 10 days.”
The Commissioner explained that the state had developed an Epidemic Preparedness Strategy by setting up two Isolation Centres in Iberekodo area of Abeokuta and a facility in Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.
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