UNIZIK Student Catches Lassa Fever

A student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka (UNIZIK) has been diagnosed with Lassa fever.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by an official of the  Medical Advisory Committee, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Ifeanyichukwu Ezebialu.

According to the statement, the specimen of the patient was collected and after series of testing at the Irrua Specialist Hospital, the result showed the victim had the virus.

Furthermore, the patient has been dispatched to the Virology Centre, Abakiliki by the state response team of the Ministry of Health.

The Minister of Environment, Mohammad Abubakar, had urged Nigerians to stop eating rats as over twenty death cases have been recorded across the country.

Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF), is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus; it spreads to people through contact with the urine or feces of an infected multi-mammate mouse (or rat).