The Gombe State Epidemiologist, Dr Bile Nuhu, has said the state recorded seven Lassa fever cases with one death between January and July. Nuhu, in an interview with our correspondent, expressed the resolve of the state to tackle epidemic with its recent surveillance and response mechanism in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.“Since January 2019 we have had 39 suspected cases of Lassa fever; we have done the verification on all, out of which we have five confirmed cases. Gombe State has two isolation centers, four patients were treated successfully and discharged, and unfortunately we lost one because he came in very late,” Nuhu said.
He added that the NCDC was on top of its game in surveillance and response by isolating suspected patients “Once there is early suspicion, you isolate the patient until the result comes back, the state government has been up and doing by ensuring we don’t run out of Ribavirin, which is the sole drug for the treatment of Lassa fever.
“The state ministry of health has ensured that in all the cases, we don’t have a case of secondary infection, we have never recorded that in Gombe State,” he said.
Source: Pharmatimes