The Department of Public Health Ebonyi State Ministry of Health has confirmed the death of 23 persons which include a nurse in the recent outbreak of Lassa fever epidemic in the state within three months.
The state epidemiologist in the Ministry of Health, Abakaliki, Dr. Nwambeke Ogbonna, Abakaliki, made this known to The Point in an exclusive interview.
He lamented the negative effects of ‘Japa syndrome’ on the state health workforce, saying that movement of their best brains to the United Kingdom and United States of America is one of the reasons it is difficult for them to easily contend with the epidemic in the state.
The epidemiologist disclosed the readiness of the ministry to embark on retraining of the younger health workforce for optimum services and called for provision of operational vehicles for sustained surveillance, funding and logistics.
He expressed worries that the state has a case fatality rate of 51.1 percent as against the national target of 10 percent.
The epidemiologist identified Ezza North and Abakaliki as LGAs with the highest endemic rate because of the current state of the state refuse dump at Umuoghara and unkempt nature of the Hausa quarter respectively.
According to Ogbonna, “Lassa fever has been in Ebonyi State for a while now; as a matter of fact Ebonyi is endemic for Lassa fever. It is one of the states that have an endemic situation in Nigeria and for some years now, we have been faced with this ugly situation.
“From January 3, 2024 till last week of March, we have recorded 45 confirmed cases of Lassa fever with 23 deaths, leaving us with a case fatality rate of 51.1% as against the national target of 10%.
“So you could say that the case fatality is on a high side. Abakaliki LGA, Ebonyi LGA, EzzaNorth, Ikwo, Izzi,Onicha and Ohaukwu are the seven hot spot local government areas in Ebonyi State that have recorded majority of the cases, that does not in any way portray that there are no cases in the other local governments that are not mentioned, however, statistics have revealed that seven local governments are worst affected and out of these Abakaliki and Ezza North are also accounting for more cases.
“In Abakaliki LGA, we have most of the communities that are more affected like the Hausa quarters; these are the areas where we recorded most cases in Abakaliki LGA. In Ezza North we recorded mostly at the area close to the state waste recycling plant in the Umuoghara community there.
“We have also recorded some health workers’ infections as well, including the death of a health worker (a nurse). We have about five health workers infected, with one death. We recently lost a health worker to Lassa fever, a few weeks ago.”
