ALERT! Lassa Fever Hits Ogun State, Kills Two

Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF) has hit Abeokuta, Ogun state capital, allegedly killing a nurse and a young man whose  identities were not known as of the time of filing this report.

One Nigeria Blog reliably gathered that two others who were a doctor and a nurse were reportedly being attended to in the intensive care unit of Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.

According to the findings and information gathered by One Nigeria Blog, the nurse and the young man were working at a morgue in Abeokuta.

When contacted, the Ministry of Health in Ogun state confirmed the incident, saying, the victims would be transferred to one of the isolation centres in the state.

The source at the ministry who did not want his name in print because of his status told a pressman on phone that the commissioner has confirmed the incident and has begun process to transfer the victims to the state-owned isolation centre.

Lassa fever is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus.

Many of those infected by the virus do not develop symptoms. When symptoms occur they typically include fever, weakness, headaches, vomiting, and muscle pains.

Less commonly there may be bleeding from the mouth or gastrointestinal tract. The risk of death once infected is about one percent and frequently occurs within two weeks of the onset of symptoms.

Among those who survive about a quarter have deafness which improves over time in about half.

The disease is usually initially spread to people via contact with the urine or feces of an infected multimammate rat. Spread can  occur via direct contact between people.

Diagnosis based on symptoms is difficult. Confirmation is by laboratory testing to detect the viruses RNA, antibodies to the virus, or the virus itself in cell culture.

Other conditions that may present similarly include Ebola fever, malaria, typhoid fever, and yellow fever.