Nigerian Govt gloated over Lassa Fever for 47years

A member of the National Committee on Control of Lassa fever, Professor Dennis Agbonlahor, has said that successive Nigerian governments gloated over how to tackle the dreaded Lassa virus since 1967 without setting control measure in motion.

Professor Agbonlahor, who has undertaken extensive research on Lassa fever treatment and prevention, described budgetary allocations to the treatment of Lassa by the Federal Government in the past 47 years as waste of public funds.

Agbonlahor, Professor of Microbiology and former vice-chancellor of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, disclosed this at the distinguished University of Benin lecture, entitled: “Combating Lassa Fever: A National Health Challenge,” held at the university.

The don, who quoted the chairman of the National Committee on the Control of Lassa fever, Professor Oyewole Tomori, noted with regret that Nigeria, in the past 47 years, made much noise in the name of creating awareness during outbreaks but goes to sleep at the end of each episode and only wakes up when the next outbreak occurs.

“For the past 44 years, Lassa fever has remained an annual budget of death for the poor people of Nigeria because we have lived in a state of denial of the disease and handled it with a characteristic laxity, laissez-faire, negligence, sloppiness, slackness, disregard and triviality.”

He noted that inconsistency in government policies occasioned by lack of political will by past governments robbed the nation the possibility of attaining the threshold of discovering the Lassa fever vaccine, while Illiteracy, harmful traditional, cultural, customs and religious beliefs have been largely attributable to under reporting of Lassa fever cases.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Faraday Orumwense, said the institution has set up a committee to sensitise the university community on ways to prevent the disease by collaborating with the government and non-governmental organisations to either eradicate or “keep this monstrous disease,” at bay.

It will be noted that since the recent outbreak of Lassa in the country, it has claimed some lives which cut across some states.

Source: Tribune