Anxiety spread across Lafia and Awe Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State following the escape of six persons suspected to be infected with Lassa fever from the isolation centre at the Federal University of Lafia Teaching Hospital.
The six suspects were taken to the facility by the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health response team after being identified as contacts of a patient believed to have died from complications suspected to be linked to Lassa fever.
Reports also indicated that the deceased’s wife had earlier died nine days before with symptoms suspected to be similar.
It was gathered that upon their arrival at the teaching hospital, blood samples were collected from the suspects and sent to a reference laboratory at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) facility in Abuja for testing.
However, before the test results—which usually take about three days—were released, the suspects reportedly escaped from the isolation centre, allegedly due to complaints over lack of food, thereby heightening fears of a possible disease spread in Lafia and Awe.
Confirming the incident on Wednesday, Petter Attah, the Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Health dismissed concerns of an outbreak, explaining that the laboratory results later returned negative.
He said officials swiftly tracked the escapees to a relative’s house in Lafia and ensured they did not interact with members of the public.
“The information we have is that two children of the deceased are already showing symptoms of the disease. When the team got there, they brought six people feared to have had contact with him earlier. As soon as they arrived, we took them to the teaching hospital where the sample was taken to a reference lab in Abuja for the test to be done”; Attah said.
He added, “What we do here is that once we suspect, we place the person on treatment because the waiting period of three days could be dangerous for a patient. It was on the New Year day that the state epidemiologist told me that the patients are complaining of feeding. I reached out to the commissioner for intervention which he gladly approved. But on reaching the facility, we were told that the patients became violent and left”.
Read also: Police foil early-morning robbery, recover pistol in Nasarawa
Attah stressed that neither the deceased nor his wife was confirmed to have died of Lassa fever, noting that only one confirmed death—a pregnant woman from Awe Local Government Area—had been recorded in the state due to Lassa fever complications.
Contrary to this position, a ministry official in Awe claimed that three deaths were linked to the outbreak. According to the official, a woman who died earlier at the General Hospital, Awe, displayed Lassa fever symptoms, while her husband, who died seven days later, showed similar signs, leading to the temporary closure and fumigation of the hospital.
