Ebonyi Lassa fever death toll rises to 4

Felix Uka, Abakaliki
Ebonyi state government has placed 139 persons in the state under surveillance because of fresh outbreak of Lassa fever virus in the state.
Public, private and mission schools in the state have been shut down. Planned visit of the wife of the governor, Mrs. Rachel Umahi to Afikpo South local government area today, Friday has been cancelled as part of measures to control spread of the disease.
Three persons; Dr. Abel Udoh, Dr. Felix Ali and a Nurse have died of the disease. The state government yesterday announced that four persons have so far died through the virus.
At a Press conference jointly organized by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezuruike and that of Education Professor John Ekeh, the government revealed that four persons have died of the disease, noted that a total of nine confirmed cases have been recorded in the state.
Umezurike said a�?there are outbreak of similar disease in other states of the federation and in Ebonyi state, a record has it that we have a total of nine confirmed cases and four deaths. We have three patients on treatments and all of them are doing well and we have contact tracing and we have 139 people we have kept on surveillance
a�?So, the situation is under control because we have set up all the committees and strategies to ensure that this disease is brought under control within the shortest possible time and the strategies are working out well. We dona��t have new cases of the disease as at yesterday, so the situation has been brought under control.
a�?Schools closure came up when we had three positive cases and ministry of education noticed that one of them has children in schools and closed down schools in Ebonyi state. We have put all the strategies and everything is working out, we believe that the situation will be brought under controla�?.
On his part, Ekeh said the situation in the state following the outbreak of the disease was not an alarming rate, adding that things are under control.