The first death from Lassa fever has been recorded in Ogun State.
Simply identified as Eze, the victim, who was being treated at an isolation centre of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Hospital Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, was pronounced dead by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye.
Ipaye said a pregnant woman has also contracted the virus.
The pregnant woman is said to be 12 weeks gone.
She is now at the isolation centre of OOUTH.
Ipaye said of the late victim: “The deceased was responding positively to treatment before she started developing complications on Saturday.
“The state government was planning to celebrate the success of her case while the family was planning a thanksgiving service before her death.”
Ipaye, however, said that none of the 121 primary contacts of Eze had come down with any fever or symptoms suggestive of Lassa fever.
He said the state government had received the consent of the family members to bury Eze according to the guidelines of the World Health Organisation and the National Protocol on management of Lassa fever.
The deceased was said to have travelled from Ebonyi State, where she had gone to attend a burial ceremony, to Ogun State on January 15 before breaking down with fever.
She visited two private hospitals for treatment before her status was confirmed.
Like the index case, Ipaye said the 28-year-old pregnant woman also travelled out of the state recently.
He said she had recently returned from Kogi State where she went to attend a wedding ceremony.
The patient, according to the Commissioner came down with fever and reported herself at a Primary Health Centre in Obantoko, Abeokuta, where she was referred to the Federal Medical Centre also in the state capital.
It was at the FMC that her status was confirmed.
Ipaye the state government had also identified 60 primary contacts with the second case, putting the contacts in the state now at 181.
The pregnant woman has been on admission for three days, according to Ipaye.
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