A Lassa fever patient receiving treatment in Nigeria’s southeastern state of Ebonyi on Tuesday absconded from a health facility to an unknown place, Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole told an audience in Abuja.
The patient was being quarantined in Ebonyi, one of the high-risk states affected by the latest Lassa fever outbreak which has claimed almost 50 lives across the country, the senior official said during the inauguration of a National Lassa Fever Action Committee to investigate, control and prevent further outbreaks of the disease.
Security agencies and health officials have immediately taken contact tracing steps to find the fleeing patient which now poses a serious threat to the society, the official said.
The latest outbreak is said to be the worst of the virus in Nigeria in the past four years. It erupted November last year and the first reported case was in the northeastern state of Bauchi.
In 2012, Lassa fever killed more than 40 in 12 states across Nigeria.
Source: Coast Week News
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