It has been reported that not less
than eight doctors, four nurses and five health workers were, yesterday, feared
to have contacted Lassa fever after they participated in operating a pregnant
woman at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, FETHA.
The pregnant woman and her baby
(names withheld) who later died few days after they were discharged from the
hospital, were suspected to have died of the deadly disease.
Read statement below....
At a press conference, the state
Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Chidi Esike, stated that the
affected medical personnel had been moved to Specialist Hospital, Irrua, in Edo
State for diagnosis and immediate medical attention.
According to him, the refusal of the
Federal Government to provide a virology centre in the South East geopolitical
zone of the country, in the face of overwhelming evidence of the need for such
facility, had threatened the gains in the health sector.
He said: “The sad aspect of this
whole saga is that since all these times that this woman and her child were
managed with several doctors, nurses and all kinds of health workers exposed to
the risk of the deadly Lassa fever virus, we are still suspecting that we have
cases of Lassa fever in our land.
”It is not sheer insensitivity to
the plight of not just the medical doctors, but also other health workers in
Ebonyi State that today, 15th May, 2014, 17 health workers in the Federal
TeachingHospital Abakaliki are suspected to be affected by Lassa fever; out of
this number, we have eight doctors, four nurses, seven others have been rushed
to Edo State for treatment.
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