A medical doctor,
Femi Fakorede, working with the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, has died
from a disease suspected to be Lassa fever. The chief medical director
of the centre in the Adamawa State capital, Aliyu Danburam, made this
known after three of the institution’s medical personnel were strangely
diagnosed of the disease. The victim died at the Irrua Specialist
Centre for the Control of Tropical and Infectious Diseases in Edo
State, where all the three affected medical doctors were brought for
treatment.
Dr Danburam who
explained the sad incident, however, said the other two doctors were
doing fine. Stressing that even though they quickly responded when they
saw symptoms “suggestive of the viral haemorrhagic fever” they were
constrained to begin the administration of drugs because it was against
medical ethics.
Lack of facilities
“As a matter of
fact we have the medication on ground but because you don’t just start
somebody on medication without confirming the diagnoses because we
don’t have the facility to confirm the diagnoses and its not just FMC
Yola,” he said.
“Most federal
establishments do not have the facility to actually confirm this
particular diagnoses and that is why the infectious disease hospital,
Irrua, being the specifically designated hospital to take care of such
infectious disease has been provided with all facilities to make this
diagnoses.” Meanwhile, medical officers in the state have been put on
the alert to monitor any suspected signs of the disease to curb its
spread. The common symptoms of the disease are fever, sign of fatigue,
vomiting, constant constipation, bleeding from under the skin in severe
cases.
