The Ministry of Health on Friday, January 15 announced that they will revamp 10,000 health centres in the country to help curb lassa fever.This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, while briefing the Senate Committee on Health on the outbreak of the lassa virus in Nigeria.

He added that since a ward comprises of 10,000 people, a significant number of about 100 million Nigerians should be reached by this approach.

 “We are working on a comprehensive plan to put life into 10,000 Primary Health Centers (PHC) across the country on the basis of one PHC per political ward.

“Since a ward comprises about 10,000 people, we think we will be able to reach a significant number of Nigerians through this approach and we will be looking at 100 million people.

“That will take care of some of the challenges, we are also looking at facilities to provide 24 hours facilities; this will enable us to beat this cases.

“With this, you will not treat malaria for one week, if you treat for 48 hours and no response, you will sent to the next level of health care,” he said.

On the recent death of a victim at the National Hospital in Abuja, he added that a thorough investigation was carried out by the ministry on the patient that was brought in with the fever but dies 24 hours later.

He said although the patient who came in from Plateau state was brought in unconscious, he had already been stayed in a private hospital for a week before he was referred to National hospital.

“It is unfortunate because if we had picked this man earlier on, we would have been able to put him on medication and he could have been alive today.

“The situation which happened in that private hospital I have asked our people to investigate.

“We will sanction the doctor or the proprietor if we find any act on negligence on his or her part,” he said.

He prayed the senate to be willing to approve money for the ministry to execute its projects on preventing lassa and other possible outbreaks.

Lanre Tejuoso, the Chairman of the Committee while giving his remarks assured Nigerians that money will be approved to the health sector for Lassa fever among other ailments.

 Source: Naij