At least, 60 persons have been placed under surveillance as a result of the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Rivers State.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Theophilus Odagme, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Odagme’s disclosure is coming barely one week after a mother and her two-week baby died of disease, said to be caused by infected rats.
He explained that 12 medical personnel, who attended to the deceased had also been placed under surveillance.
Odagme also stated that the public health facility where the mother and child died had been decontaminated and added that the victims had since been buried.
He said, “We have placed the health personnel who attended to the woman and her baby that died last week under surveillance. We have also placed some secondary contacts that had contacts with the deceased during the naming ceremony of the baby who died two days after the death of the mother under surveillance.
“Over 12 of the staff at the primary health care centre, who managed and attended to the mother and the baby have been placed under surveillance. The husband of the deceased woman has been asked to draw up a list of those who attended the naming ceremony of the baby and had contact with the mother and child.
“The list from the husband of the deceased woman is also being generated and that will be over 50. We already have some of them under observation. We are searching for all those who have had secondary contacts with the health personnel, including family members and friends who had primary and secondary contacts with the victims.
“For now, we do not have any symptomatic case. What we are doing now is to check the temperature of all those who are currently under observation. Any of them who develop the symptoms of Lassa fever will be immediately quarantined.”
He, however, urged members of the public not to panic over the Lassa fever outbreak, adding that the state government had taken necessary precautions to prevent the escalation of the disease.
