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Six people have died of the dreaded Lassa fever in Bauchi state, the commissioner for health, Dr. Halima Mukaddas, confirmed on Tuesday.
She spoke while inspecting the lassa fever case management centre at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital.
Her words:
“We have a total of six confirmed cases, three cases last year and three this year, and all the cases that were confirmed positive have died.
“We have put in place various preventive measures such as sensitizing various communities to create awareness on how to prevent lassa fever, the state’s rapid response team monitors cases.
“We have identified an establishment in liaison with the federal government to set up a diagnostic centre in the state so that we don’t have to be sending our specimen to Iruwa Specialist so that we can access results within hours considering the gravity of the disease”
Head of the centre, Dr Abdurrahman Tahir, in his response said the fever has been a recurring problem in the state adding that the mortality rate this time around was high.
He called on the state government to set up a diagnostic centre in the state to reduce the dangers posed to staff who carry the sample for investigation at the designated centre.