The ravaging Lassa fever in some states has crept into Abuja, the nation’s capital, officials confirmed yesterday.

A patient who was said to have come from Plateau State last week has taken ill, vomiting and showing other related signs and was admitted.
Officials said the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who earlier went to Niger State to supervise containment efforts, received an urgent call to return to the National Hospital late evening where the management confirmed that a patient died of the ailment at the hospital yesterday.

Adewole, who confirmed the development to some journalists late yesterday, stressed that the victim, a middle-aged man, died from the Lassa fever virus. He was moved from a private hospital in Abuja to the National Hospital yesterday where he died within 24 hours.

According to the minister, laboratory tests confirmed that it was indeed a Lassa fever case. This brought the number of deaths so far from the virus to 42.

A full statement on the development is being expected today. In the meantime, intense tracing of those who had different levels of contacts with the dead victim is expected. 

Fumigation of the facilities where he stayed and the quarantine process of persons and medical personnel who had close contacts with him are expected in earnest.

The Federal Government had on Tuesday announced plans to establish an inter-ministerial committee to “deliver a final blow on Lassa fever and other related diseases.” The committee is to be made up of the ministers of Education, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environment, Information and Culture as well as Health.

Government has also activated the National Emergency Operation Centre and dispatched surveillance officers to states.
Adewole and  his Information and  Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told journalists at a joint briefing in Abuja on Monday that  government had raised a 4-man expert committee headed by Prof. Michael Asuzu (a professor of Community Medicine and the current President of Society of Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria) to visit Niger, Kano and Bauchi, the three most affected states in the country.