A medical doctor, Dr. Samuel Nyityo, has reportedly died of lassa fever disease while two others are said to be hospitalized in Makurdi, the Benue State capital
The Next Edition gathered that the deceased medical doctor was a staff of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Benue state.
According to reports, he took ill and was referred to Irrua Specialist Hospital in Edo state where he later died.
However, a hospital source who didn’t want to be named, has stated that three persons have lost their lives to the disease.
The source in a telephone message wrote “Lassa fever is in Benue now. We lost a colleague, Dr. Samuel Tagher Nyityo, today, 09/01/2022.
“I lost two patients last week. One ate rat and took ill. I’m currently taking prophylaxis (ribavirin) and isolating because I nursed two out of the three people who died,” the source said
When contacted, state Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Joseph Ngbea confirmed cases of lassa fever in Benue but stated that only one person has died and the other in a stable condition in the hospital.
“Only Dr. Nyityo died. Nobody is in critical position. The other person is in a stable condition,” Ngbea said.
The Commissioner stated that the state government is doing its best to contain the disease saying before the diagnosis of the lassa fever, the state Governor, Samuel Ortom, through the ministry has released money to ensure that it is contained.
Ngbea who also confirmed that the late Dr. Nyityo worked for WHO said Governor Ortom had indicated interest to take over the payment but was told that the organization had released (money) for the purchase of drugs worth N600,000 to be given to anybody who contacts the disease.
He also stated that the WHO has urged that the public should ensure that anybody who contacts the disease be taken to the Teaching Hospital within 20 minutes.
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As preventive measures, the Commissioner who advised the people to stop eating rat further, therefore, cautioned the general public to desist from keeping their food outside in the open and to do away with everything that will bring rats to their homes.
“For Lassa fever, the vector is rat. For the doctor, we discovered that last year, two people has plassa fever in his compound. This means that there is a specie of rat that moves around in that area and perches on people’s food.
“People should stop the idea of keeping food outside on the ground and people should be discouraged from eating rat.
“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 fever.
“On our part, we will organize a workshop on lassa fever in Benue to create more awareness on why we should not keep anything that will encourage rats into their homes,” Ngbea said.
