Pregnant Women Face Higher Risk Of Lassa Fever- Saraki

With the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) on Friday, January 15, 2016 has taken rapid steps to create awareness of Lassa fever in pregnancy and its prevention.

Focusing on the effect of Lassa fever on pregnancy, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa shared that pregnant women,

especially those in the third trimester of pregnancy, face a higher risk of contracting the disease.

According to the organization, it causes mortality in 95 per cent of most cases. As studies have indicated, the increased likelihood of mortality at this stage of pregnancy is due to immunosuppression associated with the third trimester of pregnancy.

The lassa virus caused fever can be transmitted through contact with an infected rodent or contact with the bodily secretions of an infected person, including mother-to-child transmission and consumption of infected food items.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa led by the wife of the Senate PResident, Toyin Saraki, has placed emphasis on hand-washing and rodent control, while warning against contact with infected bodily fluids to prevent Lassa fever.

The disease which has already claimed at least 41 lives of the nearly 100 reported cases in at least ten states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has released info-graphics and behavior change communications to equip the general public with critical information that can potentially save lives.

In light of the prodigious threat posed by Lassa fever to an already fragile public healthcare system, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa also aims to facilitate capacity building for healthcare workers, especially in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), in order to minimize morbidities and mortalities resulting from the disease.

Meanwhile, panic and fear of the unknown has gripped medical practitioners who come in contact with the disease everyday.

It was reported that a doctor of the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital, old GRA, Port Harcourt lost his life to the disease.Naij.com recalls that the Benue state government had directed people in the state to desist from eating rats for the meantime.