Lassa fever: NCDC monitoring team visits Edo

• Commissioner pledges cooperation towards elimination

Edo State Commissioner for Health Prof. Obehi Akoria has assured the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) of the state’s resolve to strengthen its collaboration with the centre to address and completely eliminate lassa fever.

The Commissioner gave this assurance when she received the NCDC Research, Monitoring and Evaluation team, in her office recently in Benin City. The team was in the state to assess and collect data on the situation of Lassa fever there. 

Appreciating the NCDC efforts in the state, Prof. Akoria said the State Government has used multisectoral interventions to address the challenges of lassa fever in the State. 

She also commended the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the support given to the ministry of Health and said the Ministry is sustaining the interventions to prevent further outbreak of the disease.

Earlier, Roberts Adedryin, NCDC’s senior Research Monitoring and Evaluation officer gave a presentation on the overview of data collection activities of Lassa fever in Edo State. 

She thanked the State Government for the support in the mobilisation of respondents and data collection for the research. She described the project as a fact finding mission aimed at solving the problem of Lassa fever in Nigeria.

Edo state is one of the states affected by the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria.

The state has since stepped up surveillance and prompt investigation of suspected cases, facilitating documentation of contacts, contact tracing and monitoring. It has also developed and disseminated public health advisory to raise awareness about the disease among residents of the state.