Yobe quarantines 7 people over Lassa fever

Seven people have been quarantined in Damaturu Specialist Hospital, Yobe State, over suspected cases of Lassa fever.

The state Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Dr Bello Kawuwa, who revealed this to newsmen yesterday in Damaturu, said the victims had been subjected to clinical analysis.

“Three of the seven suspected cases have been discharged after an initial clinical analysis while the remaining four are still undergoing clinical appraisal,” he said, explaining that the standard protocols had not yet confirmed position of the outstanding four cases as they had been subjected to a second laboratory test.

“In the month of July, about seven cases of suspected Lassa fever were reported in Yobe and they were subjected to normal clinical appraisal and out of these seven, three were looking less of Lassa fever. We subjected such to laboratory analysis to confirm the true position and will only be confirmed when the result of the second laboratory test is released,” he said, adding, “We have isolated such cases to prevent unnecessary contact and our epidemic response team has also gone to the affected community to carryout contact tracing as well as enlighten the people on what should be done.”