The Adamawa Government on Wednesday said it has embarked on an aggressive public awareness campaign to keep off Lassa fever from the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Fatima Atiku, announced this on Yola while fielding questions from newsmen.
“We (State Government) have since commenced aggressive public enlightenment on Lassa fever to keep the disease away from Adamawa.

“We have adopted proactive strategies aimed at preventing an outbreak of the disease in our state,’’ she said.
According to her, all disease control officers in the local government areas of the state have been fully mobilised to look out for any outbreak.

 
She added that quarantine (isolation) centres had been established in Yola Specialist Hospital, Mubi General Hospital and Ganye General Hospital.

 
Meanwhile, the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola, has constituted a committee to contain any outbreak of Lassa fever in Adamawa.

 
The Chief Medical Director of the centre, Prof. Mohammed Auwal, made this known Wednesday at a news conference on Wednesday in Yola.

 
Auwal said the committee, headed by an infectious disease specialist, has commenced work in earnest.

 
“Everybody here is on alert; we have identified an isolation site and we are relating with accident and emergency ward so that we identify any case as quickly as possible.
“We have been supplied with drugs and protective gowns for medical staff,” Auwal said.

 
While urging the public to take precautionary measures, particularly in the area of basic hygiene, Auwal said so far no case of the fever has been recorded in the state.

 
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the last case of Lassa fever was recorded in Adamawa in 2011.

 
Four people, including two medical doctors and two nurses of FMC Yola, contacted the disease that year.

 
One of the doctors died while his colleague and the two nurses survived.

(NAN)