Fear grips Ondo health workers over the death of a colleague

ONE health official with the Kidney Care Centre, at the Medical Village, Ondo town, Ondo State, has been reportedly killed by Lassa fever in the state.

The deceased, who was identified as Rasheedat Mohammed, a laboratory attendant at the hospital was said to have died last Saturday after allegedly being diagnosed with Lassa Fever.

According to a source,  the deceased was said to have contacted the disease in Port Harcourt in Rivers state,  where she went to visit a relative who had earlier been infected.

It was however gathered that the infected relative also lost his life to the fever.

Meanwhile, the workers in the hospital have raised the alarm over the alleged insensitivity of the management of the hospital to take action to protect other members of staff of the hospital.

According to the staff,  who alleged that the management of the hospital was aware of the development and had failed to guide against further occurrence.

They stated that the case was specifically reported to the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Akinwumi Akinbodewa, but he allegedly refused to give a directive for medical examination on the workers, particularly the health and medical officers.

Speaking to Nigerian Tribune on condition of anonymity, a staff of the hospital, lamented that workers at the kidney care centre have been working in fear since the death of their colleague.

She said“ We don’t know what to do, one of us has been killed by Lassa Fever, we have appealed to the management to conduct a medical test for us but the CMD did not want us to cry out because of the image of the hospital and the state but our own life is at risk now.

“ We expected the hospital to have taken our blood sample to Irrua Specialists Hospital to check whether any one of us had been infected or not but they have done nothing about it.

Also, another worker of the hospital alleged one of the officers of the hospital, Dr Akinbodewa of playing politics with the matter, saying the management was not being proactive at containing the spread of the disease among the medical personnel of the hospital.

“ The CMD is playing politics with our lives, he is aware that the case has resurfaced in the hospital, which had claimed a life of one of us but he did not do anything, we don’t know whether another person has been infected now among we the workers, I think the governor must hear this, they want to cover up the matter.

He disclosed that some of the workers of the hospital had been visiting the Federal Medical Centre, Owo to have their blood screened to ascertain whether their blood is free of the disease or not.

When contacted, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro said there were no more cases of Lassa Fever in the state.

He, however, confirmed the death of the medical worker in the hospital but said the deceased died of a complication of the liver problem and not Lassa Fever.

He said, ” It is not correct, there was no news of any new case of Lassa in Ondo State, it is true that somebody, who was a member of the staff of the hospital, died of the liver problem that led to some complication.

“Though her blood sample had been taken to Lagos to rule out all things the clinical evidence did not support Lassa Fever. We are expecting the result on Wednesday.

All efforts to speak with the CMD of the hospital was not successful but however responded to text messages sent to his private mobile phone.

He said, “ I don’t think it is ethical to be asking such question through a text message, because anybody can claim to be a journalist and I am also going to ask you how you got my phone number and I don’t think it is ethical to have my number.

“So, if you want me to answer the question you will come to Ondo and conduct a proper interview instead of sending a text message.”