Lassa Fever: FG has abandoned us —Edo govt

The Edo State Government has called on international organisations to come to the rescue of the state over the outbreak of Lassa Fever, saying the Federal Government has abandoned the state despite multiple pleas for help.

The Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, who stated this on Wednesday decried the neglect by the Federal Government on the recent outbreak of Lassa Fever prevalent in about three local government areas and has therefore appealed to international donor agencies and groups to come to its aid.

He said, “The state government has tried everything within its powers to check this Lassa Fever outbreak. We have reached out to the Federal Government but for all intents and purposes, the Federal Government has abandoned the Edo State government and its people in this issue. As of today, we have over 50 people infected with this disease in Edo and we have a five percent case fertility rate which is very high even compared to COVID-19.

“All plea and entreaties to the Federal Government on this challenging issue, they apparently just fell on deaf ears and this particularly is disheartening especially as the current Minister of Health is from Edo State.

“Having hit a brick wall, we are constrained to reach out to international intervention agencies such as the WHO, UNICEF and any other international organisations that have the mandate to intervene in infectious disease outbreaks.

“As a government, we have written several letters to the Ministry of Health, to the Centre for Disease Control, to all the people involved in health issues to come and intervene and join the state to fight this outbreak but unfortunately they have abandoned us.

“We want the international agencies to intervene quickly before the situation gets worse. We have reached out to some of these agencies and we thank them for the efforts they are providing right now,” he added.