• As LUTH Monitors 100 Contacts<em

Lagos and Ogun State Governments yesterday called on residents to remain calm over the outbreak of Lassa fever, assuring that they are doing everything possible to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Addressing journalists at the Alausa Secretariat, on the first case of the disease recorded in the state, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said in line with international standards, 92 persons who had direct and indirect contact with the index case are currently being followed-up.

Idris confirmed that the index case, a 25-year-old male undergraduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, was reported to have fallen ill after arriving Lagos and was taken to Ahmmadiyyah Hospital, Ojokoro on January 9 with complaints of fever, sore throats and difficulty in swallowing.

And, following the spread of the deadly Lassa fever to neighbouring states of Lagos, Ondo and Oyo, Ogun State government urged its citizens to remain calm, saying that it has set up active surveillance units in all the 20 local government areas of the state.

Also, the management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has said that although a case of Lassa fever has been confirmed in the hospital, the patient is responding to treatment and being managed professionally, while over 100 contacts are being monitored.

Addressing a press conference in Lagos yesterday, the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Professor Christopher Bode, said the Lassa Fever case was from a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna, who came to Lagos to visit his mother.

The Ogun Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, who addressed a press conference in Abeokuta, noted that although no case has been reported in the state, the government was fully prepared to combat the disease.

Ipaye added that the government maintains constant dialogue with the federal government on the distribution of Anti-Retroviral drugs for the treatment in case of any incidence in the state.