Lassa Fever Patient Escapes Hospital

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has revealed that a Lassa fever patient successfully escaped from a treatment facility in Ebonyi State.

The patient was said to have sneaked out of the health facility, where he was receiving treatment.

Minister of Health revealed this in Abuja during a meeting of the National Council on Health, where he inaugurated a 15-member Lassa fever eradication committee to address the outbreak of the disease and other communicable disease in the country.

The minister said he received a text message notifying him that a Lassa fever patient escaped from a health facility in Ebonyi while undergoing treatment.

He has alerted relevant agencies as well as the state government to trace the patient and those who might have had contact with him after he left the hospital.

During the course of the meeting, it was approved that a high index of suspicion should be maintained and the surveillance systems should be robust enough to detect further infections.

The inauguration of the Multi-Sectoral Lassa Fever Eradication Committee and implementation of the Multi-Sectoral Response Strategy against the outbreak was also approved.

The Lassa fever has claimed about 46 lives since its initial outbreak in August 2015, in Niger state.