Nigeria is Free of Ebola but Not of Lassa

On October 20 the day the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Nigeria Ebola-free, another public health issue in the news was the growing cases of Lassa fever in Oyo state, South-west Nigeria.

This is not however restricted to Oyo State. The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Khaliru Alhassan, had earlier stated at a press briefing in Abuja on October 10 that about 29 million Nigerians are at the risk of Lassa fever, while 26 states are exposed to the disease.

 The coordinator of the Response Team for Outbreak of Diseases and Emergency of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Olusegun Fasina, told journalists  in Ibadan that the number of patients diagnosed with Lassa fever has increased  in the last two months.

“Within the last two months, we have had about 80 samples suspected of hemorrhagic fever of any source. Out of the 80, we are having close to 27 being positive. That is about 35 to 40 percent. This is very high,” he said

Incidentally, Lassa fever discovered in 1969 and named after a town in Borno Nigeria is caused by Lassa virus, a filovirus as Ebola virus, and could also be haemorrhagic like Ebola.

The reservoir, or host, of Lassa virus is a rodent known as the "multimammate rat".

However, Lassa is not as deadly as Ebola. Also, unlike Ebola, it has cure. But, it is highly infectious and kills too like Ebola.

 A good number of people that contracted or died of the disease are health workers. This is as a result of inadequate facility and working tools for testing and treatment of the virus.

Dr. Khaliru Alhassan disclosed at the press briefing that the majority of 207 recorded deaths out 1944 cases of Lassa fever in Nigeria in 2012 occurred among the health workers.

In May six medical staff of the Federal Teaching Hospital, FETHA, Abakaliki Ebonyi State South East Nigeria, tested positive to Lassa fever. The six persons were among the 11 doctors and five nurses who had to be rushed to the virology laboratory in Irrua, Edo state South South Nigeria, for testing.

They contracted the virus while treating a pregnant woman who later died with her baby

There is no virology centre where there could be test and treatment for any virus infection in the entire South East zone of the country. Dr. Chidi Esike, Ebonyi State Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) disclosed this at a press conference in Abakaliki in May.

In a similar vein there are only four laboratories in Nigeria where there can be test for Ebola virus, according Prof. Oyewale Tomori, a virologist and President of Nigerian Academy of Science, during  an interview with Channel News in August.

  

Dr. Alhassan however accepted the fact that the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in the country was a signal that it had not received the expected attention.