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50 feared killed by strange disease in Kogi State

By Chukwuma Muanya, (Assistant Editor, Lagos), John Akubo (Lokoja) and Oluwaseun Akingboye (Akure) 
18 August 2017   |   4:21 am
A strange disease, the symptoms of which include diarrhea, bloodstained vomiting and high fever, has killed 50 people at Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa villages in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State.

AFP PHOTO / James KAYEE

• Lagos not yet Lassa fever-free
• Ondo trains 54 surveillance officers

A strange disease, the symptoms of which include diarrhea, bloodstained vomiting and high fever, has killed 50 people at Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa villages in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State.

Initial reports had suspected Lassa fever, but medics told the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Saka Audu, who visited the affected areas yesterday, that it was a strange disease.

“We initially suspected Lassa fever after getting some misleading reports about people bleeding, so we made a diagnosis for viral haemorrhagic fever (Lassa fever), but the result was negative,” Dr. Jannette Hathorn, a consultant at ECWA Hospital, Egbe told Audu.

The commissioner said that analyses had not confirmed the disease to be Lassa fever, but whatever it is, they would carry out further investigation to come up with definitive diagnosis.

Hathorn said that the first case was that of a child of two and half years, who died 12 hours after he was brought to the hospital.

“Two adult patients were also brought here; one showed symptoms of ulcer-viral illness, but there was no bleeding component of any haemorrhagic symptom.

“We isolated them and both of them were treated for malaria. When they started improving, we let them go. But our concern was another parents who brought their child to the hospital and pleaded with us for help that about 40 to 50 people had died in their villages with a similar symptom as their child in the last three weeks.”

There are concerns over Lassa fever as another doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), that had contact with the index case, has developed symptoms of the disease and is now on admission.

Also, 70 persons out of the 150 that have been under surveillance, because they had contact with the index case, have been certified free of the virus after the mandatory 21 days observation period.

Chief Medical Director (CMD) of LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, who confirmed this to The Guardian yesterday said: “The important thing to note now is that Lassa fever is in town but it is under control. We are happy that with the support of the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, we have enough equipment, drugs, facilities and medical experts to contain the situation.’’

LUTH, last week Tuesday, confirmed that two patients treated had died within a few days of admission in the past one week.

Bode 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.

In a related development, the Ondo State government has trained 54 surveillance officers and informants to avert Lassa fever across the 18 local councils.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Taiye Oni, during the training exercise in Akure yesterday, said the action was necessary to build up the capacity of the trainees for good delivery.

Represented by the Deputy Director of the state Public Health, Dr. Ayodele Adelusi, he said Governor Rotimi Akeredolu approved the training to combat any likely outbreak of the disease in any part of the state.

According to him, the trainees would be disease notification officers that would alert the appropriate authorities if anything strange is seen in their respective assigned areas.

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