Lassa fever panic at Ojukwu Varsity hospital

Fear of lassa fever epidemic has gripped patients and staff of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku Awka the Anambra state capital.

This fear stems from the admission into the hospital of a female lassa fever patient resulting in an unexpected panic that forced other patients to distance themselves from the apartment where the lady was kept.

Confirming the incident, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), of COOUTH, Dr. Lawrence Ikeakor, said that the teaching hospital had a lady patient that was admitted on the night of Sunday and on Monday morning the staff, on suspicion that she may be a patient of lassa fever, informed him about the development.

He said their staff are trained in such a way that when they have suspicion of serious cases they have to alert the authorities which they promptly did on admission of the patient.

“So we had to notify the (Anambra state) Ministry of Health and they came with their ambulance and took the patient to a federal government specialist medical laboratory at Irua in Edo state, where she was confirmed to be a lassa fever patient,” the CMD said.

He said it was not that they don’t have their own ambulance but just that the Health
Ministry decided to evacuate the patient with theirs.

The state governor, Chief Willie Obianor, he said, has helped them a lot to surmount most of our teething problems and recently we received additional fund from him to help us recruit staff.

He said: “We are nurturing a very young teaching hospital; we have graduated first and second sets of medical doctors. In five years we have recorded gigantic strides through our governor who always come to our financial needs whenever called upon.

“We have started the residency training, specialist training and this is as a result of approval/accreditation made possible by the governor,” he said.