With 146 recorded cases of Lassa Fever so far this year, the Chairman Lassa Fever Response Task Force and Deputy Governor of Edo State, Rt. Hon Comrade Philip Shaibu has tasked Local Government Officials to ensure proper sensitization of rural dwellers on preventive measures against the virus.
Shaibu noted that the government reduced mortality rate of Lassa Fever to a single digit last year adding that it was worried about the upsurge of the decease this year. As part of measure to tackle it headlong, he said the state government will replicate the infrastructure provided at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital and Auchi General Hospital in Etsako West at the Isolation Center in Stella Obasanjo Hospital.
Comrade Shaibu also promised that the state is working at training medical workers to meet the current challenges to reduced the spread of the decease in the state
The Deputy Governor also assured that the state government will continue to invest in the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital despite it’s being a Federal Hospital to continue to deliver quality health services to Edo people, especially in tackling Lassa Fever.
Delivery his speech on the control of Lassa Fever, the representative from the Department of Edo State Public Health, Ministry of Health, Dr. Ojeifo Stephenson said, “Good adherence to standard precautions and infection prevention and control practices in healthcare settings is identified as an important factor in the control of Lassa fever and reduction in mortality rates in the society.
In their separate responses, Hon. Commissioner for Community and his counterparts in Community and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Donald Okogbe Esq. and Environment and Sustainability, Engr. Jonathan Lawani, suggested rural collaboration and sensitization to arrest the increasing mortality rate of the decease.
