Woman Die Of Suspected Lassa Fever In Niger State

A woman identified as Ramatu Usman Shehu on Monday died from a suspected case of Lassa fever in Niger state.

According to a family source, Ramatu who died at about 6 a.m on Monday morning was rushed to a private hospital in Minna when she started vomitting and stooling blood and emitting blood from her nostrils.

The Source told The Nation that the hospital, after testing her referred her to the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Specialist Hospital but the parents refused taking her to the hospital and took her home where she died.


“What made us suspicious”, the Source said, “was when some officials from the Ministry of health came to the house, the hospital must have told them. When they came,Ramatu was already dead, so they have the people who were going to bury her some protective surgical suits to put on and they sprayed the body, the car that carried her to the hospital and all four the house. This was after testing her.”

The Source said that for about a week, the deceased  who had six children had been complaining of sore throat and body pains, “but the body got worse yesterday. She was taken to the General Hospital Minna but there was no doctor on ground to attend to her, that was why she was taken to the private hospital. However,after admitting her, one of the doctors tested her and said she has been referred to IBB Hospital.”

When The Nation visited the private Hospital, one of the doctors who spoke anonymously confirmed that a lady was brought to the hospital with suspected Lassa fever symptoms and because they could not handle her, the hospital refered her to the IBB Specialist Hospital.

He also confirmed that the management called the state Ministry of health to inform them of their suspicion, “the lady did not die in our hospital. When we noticed we could not handle her case,we referred her to IBB Specialist Hospital. So whether they went or not, we do not know. I am just hearing that she died from you.”

However, efforts to get the Niger state Ministry of Health prooved abortive. Although our Reporter met with the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Makunsidi, he denied knowledge of any case as such saying he had not been informed. He however promised to make enquiries and get back to the Reporter.

But as at the time of filing this report, he had not called and his number was not going through.