BEVERLY HILLS, January 12, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has appointed a four-man team of experts to visit Niger, Kano and Bauchi states, which constitute the three most affected states by Lassa fever in Nigeria, in response to the ravaging disease.
Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, and Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture made the disclosure at a joint press briefing held on Tuesday in Abuja.
“As part of our long-term response, we plan to establish an inter-ministerial committee comprising ministers of education, agriculture and natural resources, environment, information and culture as well as health to deliver a final blow on Lassa fever and other related diseases,” they said.
Michael Asuzu, a professor of Community Medicine and current president of Society of Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria, is to lead the committee which will embark on a fact-finding mission, assess the current situation, document response and experiences, identify gaps and proffer recommendations on how to prevent future occurrences.
In the same vein, the Senate has invited the health minister to appear before the Senate Committee on Health over measures taken to prevent spread of the disease which has been recorded in 10 states of the federation.
The Senate, however, rejected a prayer calling for distribution of free rat killers to Nigerians to eradicate rats from the environment following a motion sponsored by Olarenwaju Tejuosho (APC, Ogun Central) and co-sponsored by five other senators.
According to the Tejuoso, the need for free rat killers for Nigerians had become imperative because the level of poverty in the country will not encourage the purchase of rat killers as more important products of survival have taken priority.
But this was rejected by the senators when Senate president, Bukola Saraki put the question to voice vote.
Rather, they urged the Federal Government, health agencies, non-governmental organisations to carry out holistic and aggressive sensitisation at markets, restaurants, neighbourhoods, communities, offices and schools on preventive measures and also paid a one-minute silence to those who have lost their lives to the ailment.
They urged Nigerians to be very conscious and adhere to rules of personal hygiene and put in more efforts to get rid of rodents/rats from their environment to prevent the spread.
On his part, Saraki charged the Ministry of Health to provide enough funding for the National Centre for Disease Control to put an end to re-occurrence of the disease.
Available records from the Federal Ministry of Health surveillance team show that the number of suspected cases of Lassa fever is 93; number of laboratory confirmed cases is 25 and the number of reported deaths is 41, with a case fatality rate of 44 percent.
Story by David Oputah
