Lassa fever: Rivers establishes three centres

THE Rivers State Government said it had established three centres to contain the dreaded Lassa fever that broke out in the state in December 2015.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Theophilus Odagme, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt on Monday, explained that one person suspected to be affected by the disease had been admitted into one of the centres.

Odagme, who spoke through his Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Bazia, listed the three centres mapped out for the control and elimination of Lassa fever as Porp Johnson Health Centre, the VIP Ward at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital and a space inside the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
The commissioner also disclosed that apart from the person that had been admitted into one of the centres, about 250 were currently under surveillance.

He added that the Emohua Disease Control Centre established in the state to fight Ebola Virus in 2013 had been vandalised by unknown persons.
“We have established three centres so far; they are Porp Johnson Health Centre in Port Harcourt and one person is being observed there. We also have the VIP Ward in BMSH and also a space in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

“We are currently working on the disease control centre in Emohua that was used during the Ebola Virus outbreak. The centre has been vandalised by some unknown persons,” Odagme said.
On other measures put in place to curb the spread of Lassa fever in the state, the commissioner said the state had been collaborating with the World Health Organisation and the Federal Government in the fight against the dreaded disease.

Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress has called on the state and federal governments to expedite action in containing the spread of the disease across the state and Nigeria.