The Ondo State government on Wednesday confirmed that no fewer than 20 people have lost their lives to the Lassa fever disease, just as the state government is battling with the spread of the disease.
The state commissioner for health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, who confirmed this said about 112 cases had been recorded in the state with the diseases spreading to five local government areas in the state.
He listed the affected LGAs to include Akoko South-West, Ose, Owo, Akure South and Ondo West Local Government Areas while the victims were transferred to the Federal Medical Center, Owo and a treatment centre in Akure.
According to him, the number of casualties hit by Lassa fever increased as a result of the influx of some victims from the neighbouring states to the state because of the free treatment offered in the state.
Earlier, the state government revealed that it had recorded 16 deaths as a result of the disease while 100 cases were recorded but the figure has increased in the last week.
Adegbenro said: “We are having the high figure because Ondo State is the only state that the treatment of Lassa fever is free of charge. I think we have people coming from other areas to access free treatment.”
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The commissioner, while speaking on the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, which holds on January 20, 2020, said the state has been mapped for the various Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Some of the neglected tropical diseases, according to the commissioner, include onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, soil-transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis and human African trypanosomiasis.
He explained that the “mapping result indicates that the state has overlapping endemicity for four preventive chemotherapy NTDs – the onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and schistosomiasis.”
He said the government was being proactive in tackling the diseases as the government had begun the distribution of the preventive chemotherapy for the neglected tropical disease.
According to him, the distribution varies across the communities and local government areas in the state.
“The source of NTDs were also being addressed through mass awareness created through different print and electronic media along with specific mass administration of medicines in the endemic areas,” he stated.
The commissioner also noted that the World Health Organisation had targeted most of the preventive chemotherapy of the NTDs for elimination by 2030 “in line with the Millennium Development Goal 3.”
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