A pregnant woman and two medical doctors have died of Lassa fever in Nasarawa State, according to the Director of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Ibrahim Adamu on Wednesday.
He said based on activities conducted on the outbreak response, the doctors are suspected to have contracted the disease from the pregnant woman both of them operated on recently at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital in the state capital Lafia.
The woman died of a bleeding disorder associated with fever, which brings the number of Lassa fever deaths in the state to three.
The two doctors, he stated, fell ill, got diagnosed and died in health facilities in Abuja.
“We can confirm the two doctors that have succumbed to the threat of Lassa fever. When they fell ill, they were not in the state, they fell ill outside Nasarawa State, they were admitted for treatment in Abuja, the diagnosis was actually done outside the state and the death also occurred in facilities that are in Abuja not within the state,” Adamu said.
“However based on the outbreak response activities we have conducted, it appears that they might have been infected from the state where a pregnant woman was said to have been operated upon and she died of bleeding disorder connected to fever, so the suspicion right now is that she might have been the source of the infection for those two doctors because they are the two persons that operated upon her.
He added that all contacts of the three victims have been identified and their tests all returned negative but the ministry will continue with surveillance.
