Medical doctor dies of Lassa Fever in Rivers state

                                    

The dreaded lassa fever on Thursday claimed the life a medical doctor at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt, Dr. Ehivai Njamala.

The death of Njamala brings to three, the number of persons who have been killed by the disease since its outbreak in Rivers State in December 2015.

Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in the state, Dr. Duro Green, who disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt, said the medical doctor contracted the disease while treating patients at the Disease Control Unit in BMSH.


Green used the opportunity to announced the commencement of a three-day warning strike by the NMA following the kidnap of two medical doctors in the state few days ago.

Dr. Ib Aprioku, a consultant with the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt, was kidnapped on Sunday, January 10, 2016, while Dr Isaac Opurum, the director in charge of Community Health Services in the Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board, was kidnapped in the early hours of yesterday from his residence in the state capital.

Leadership gathered that the warning strike commenced from 9:00am yesterday in all state government owned hospital across the state.

Meanwhile, he state commissioner for Health, Dr. Theophilus Odagme has appealed to the striking medical doctors to call off the action calling for more time to allow security agencies to investigate and ensure the rescue of the victims.

Odagme, who made the appeal in a chat with newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday, said, “My appeal to doctors and other health care workers is that the kidnap of the two doctors should not male us down tools. I am in touch with the DSS, with the commissioner of Police, the OC, anti-kidnapping squad and I can assure them that everything is being done.

“As I speak to you, the car of the doctors that was kidnapped on Tuesday morning has been recovered and that car is being moved to a place where it should be. Some suspects have been picked up and they are being interrogated. So, the security operatives are very active on this matter.”