Ogun discharges Lassa fever survivor

Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, yesterday disclosed that the 20-year-old boy diagnosed with Lassa fever in the state has been discharged from the isolation centre at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.
Ipaye, who disaclosed this when he spoke with newsmen at the centre in Abeokuta, said the boy was brought into the state hospital in Ijaye and was later transferred to the isolation centre at FMC, Idi-Aba.
He disclosed that the boy, brought to the centre with complications, had 20 percent chances of survival because he had serious renal complication which could have led to his death.
“Having being successfully treated and fully recovered from the disease, with results of the last two test carried out, indicating negative, the boy was free to go home and join his family members,” he said.
He, however, stressed the need for the continuous monitoring of the 106 currently being quarantined as a result of the contact they had, saying state department of public health would continue to monitor and guide against any further development.
He assured the residents of the state to remain calm as Lassa fever was a curable disease, noting that when the last contact certified free from any form of fever, it would later get back to the public and declare Ogun State Lassa fever free.
The commissioner thanked the management of the FMC and its team leader in charge of the isolation centre for the success recorded in rescuing the index, noting that the centre had been serving the residents of the state in fulfilment of the primary reason it was established by the Federal Government.
In the same vein, the Chief Medical Director of the centre, Prof. Adewale Musa, affirmed that the index was in critical condition when he was first brought to the FMC and urged residents of the state to take their health as a matter of priority and urgency, noting that if not God’s intervention, the boy would not have survived. “but we thank God almighty that he survived.
He lauded the state government’s support and its intervention for providing moral, physical and logistics support in rescuing the index from the deadly disease and admonished the state government to persuade the Federal Government to upgrade the centre into university teaching hospital.