Lassa fever: Doctors demand life insurance for health workers

Resident doctors have demanded for a comprehensive life insurance for all health care workers in Nigeria following the continuous exposure to threat posed by Lassa fever and other infectious diseases in parts of the country.

They also unanimously called on the Federal Government to urgently take over tertiary healthcare because state governments have repeatedly demonstrated inability to manage them.

The demands were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the 38th Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) in Shika, Kaduna State.

The communiqué signed by the president and secretary general of the association, Dr. Ugochukwu Chinaka and Dr. Osinachukwu V. Nnadi respectively NARD also called on government to setup regional Infectious Disease Centres of Excellence across the country to ease the pressure at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Irrua as well as to stem the needless loss of lives to Lassa fever.

While the association appreciated the recent scale of surveillance at the country’s land borders and airports, it noted that it has helped curb the threat of Ebola virus, regulate and report entry of suspected infectious individuals and prevent the spread of the deadly disease in Nigeria.

They also called on the Federal Government and Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of health facilities to ensure the security of doctors and all staff across the country.