Lassa fever has reportedly claimed the lives of a medical doctor, Dr. Abubakar Saleh Moriki, and a health worker, Hamza Abubakar, at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital and Kauran Wali Clinic, both in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Our correspondent learnt that the hospital had liaised with the state epidemiology unit, which has the responsibility of taking the samples to Abuja for confirmation and was awaiting the result.
According to a source, Moriki was admitted at the Tudun Wada Branch of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Zaria on Thursday, March 17, and subsequently transferred to ABUTH Shika where he died on Monday (March 21).
It was further gathered that Dr. Moriki, who was a consultant at Kauran Wali Clinic in Zaria, might have come in contact with a woman suspected to be infected with Lassa fever in the course of his official engagement.
Contact with the said woman had also led to the death of Hamza Abubakar, a staff of the clinic, who died on Saturday, March 19.
Moriki was buried according to Islamic rites at Dambo Cemetery, Jos Road, Zaria, following infectious diseases prevention protocols.
Meanwhile, the Director of Disease Control, Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Hamza Ikara, said a medical team from the state government would liaise with the facilities over the incidence.
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