‘Only two persons died of Lassa fever in Katsina’

Katsina State Government yesterday said only two persons died following the outbreak of Lassa fever in the state.

The Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Health, Dr. Kabir Mustapha, made this known to newsmen in Katsina.

He said that the disease was imported from neighbouring Kaduna State by the relatives of a deceased victim infected by the fever.

Mustapha said that three other persons who took active part in the burial of the corpse of the victim, contracted the disease.

According to him, the infected persons were immediately taken to the isolation centre at Babbar-ruga, to avoid spreading the disease.

He told reporters that another case of the disease was imported to the state from Gwagwada, Abuja although the patient later died at the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina.

The permanent secretary said that 11 medical staff of the centre had been quarantined and that seven of them tested negative following laboratory tests carried out on them.