Nigerians show high awareness of Lassa Fever virus disease

A new public opinion poll conducted by NOIPolls in partnership with EpiAfric to seek the perception of Nigerians regarding the awareness, mode of transmission, symptoms and preventive measures of Lassa fever revealed that there is a very high level (about 81 percent) of awareness of the disease.

According to the study, the awareness is mostly derived through television (46 percent) and radio (39 percent). It is highest in the North-East (89 percent), where the disease was first observed in the 1960s and where the current outbreak appears to have started.

Rat infected food stuff is commonly believed to be the main mode of transmission (93 percent), while very few people mentioned the role of person-to-person transmission. People identified fever (63 percent), mucosal bleeding (37 percent), vomiting (33 percent) and headache (12 percent) to be the symptoms of the disease.

Majority of the respondents indicated that they were willing to go to a public hospital for health care if affected by the disease (92 percent). Most also indicated that they will ensure that their environment is clean (40 percent), as their primary strategy to avoid being affected by the virus. A higher percentage of Nigerians expressed their confidence in their local hospital’s capacity to manage cases of Lassa Fever (70 percent) and most respondents were confident that the Ministry of Health was carrying out enough sentisization about the disease (83 percent). These were the key findings from the recently conducted public opinion poll on the Health Sector in the week commencing January 25th 2016.

Lassa fever is a severe and sometimes deadly disease, caused by the Lassa fever virus. It has been diagnosed in patients predominantly in West Africa. It is also known as Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever (LHF) although very few patients actually present with hemorrhagia (bleeding). Because the symptoms of Lassa fever are so varied and nonspecific, clinical diagnosis is often difficult. Outbreaks are initiated when a human is infected by an infected rodent.

Research has shown that it is more prevalent during the dry season. Lassa fever was first discovered originally in 1969 in Lassa, a remote village in Borno State, Nigeria and since then, there have been numerous outbreaks across West Africa. Another outbreak started in August 2015 in Nigeria; it has spread to 17 States with a total record of 78 deaths (at the time of writing this report).

The Federal Ministry of Health says it is doing everything possible to defeat the deadly disease, just like it did during the outbreak of Ebola virus. It, however, urged residents to be on red alert by embracing personal and environmental hygiene.