WHO Loses Doctor To Lassa Fever, Two Others Die Of Lassa Fever In Benue.
A WHO staff and medical doctor, Samuel Nyityo has died of Lassa fever.
Lassa Fever killed Nyityo and two other patients in the recent outbreak in Benue State.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) staff died at Irrua Specialist Hospital in Edo State.
According to a report obtained from Vanguard on Monday, January 10, Nyityo was referred to the Specialist hospital.
A source confirmed the death to news correspondents. The source said that the state lost three persons in the recent outbreak.
The source said:
“Lassa fever is in Benue now.
“We lost a colleague, Dr Samuel Nyityo, today.
“I lost two patients last week.
“One ate the rat and took ill.
“I am currently taking prophylaxis (ribavirin) and isolating because I nursed two out of the three people who died.”
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Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services Dr Joseph Ngbea confirmed the outbreak.
He, however, denied the three deaths revealed by our sources.
Ngbea rather confirmed the death of the WHO doctor and another treatment.
He said; “Only Dr Nyityo died.
“Nobody is in a critical position.
“The other person is in a stable condition.
“For Lassa fever, the vector is rat.
“For the doctor, we discovered that last year, two people had Lassa fever in his compound.
“This means that there is a species of rat that moves around in that area and poaches on people’s food.”
The Commissioner also advised people to abstain from eating rats. He added that rat be prevented from entering the house.
He continued;
“People should stop the idea of keeping food outside on the ground and people should be discouraged from eating rat.
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People should also keep away anything that would encourage rats to enter their homes.
“Those are the preventive measures.
“Apart from that, people should also see the doctor if they have a fever.”
