Panic is rising in Osun state about suspected outbreak of Lassa fever, after a doctor who died at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-ife, is suspected to have contracted the disease.
The doctor, a resident, died after vomiting blood on the hospital premises.
Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel and patients at the emergency unit where the doctor died fled the hospital on Monday in fear.
A medical doctor in the hospital told Daily Trust, on conditions of anonymity, that the late doctor had visited Ekiti State before arriving Ile-Ife on Monday.
But the authorities of OAUTHC have debunked insinuations that the doctor died as a result of Lassa fever disease virus.
However, the Chairman of OAUTHC medical committee on Lassa fever, Prof. Adedeji Onayade confirmed the death of the resident doctor but he said the fact that the doctor bled to death does not mean that he had contacted Lassa fever.
Onayade said blood sample of the late doctor had been obtained and sent to the federal government for confirmation and that until the result of the blood sample was confirmed positive, it could not be said that the hospital recorded a case of Lassa fever.
Source: AllAfrica
