No fewer than 39 people have been killed following the resurgence of Lassa fever in Bauchi State between January and April 2020.
Recall that as of April 16th when the Deputy Governor, Baba Tela, who is also the Chairman of the Task Force on COVID-19 and lassa fever in the state, addressed a press conference, he said 19 people had been killed from Lassa fever.
Speaking at a press conference at the Government House on Wednesday, the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, who said 39 people had been killed by the disease, expressed displeasure that attention had been shifted from Lassa fever to coronavirus.
He said, “I am very unhappy with the way and manner this COVID-19 has taken over the spaces of medical treatment and health care and leaving Lassa fever that has killed over 39 people in Bauchi.
“COVID-19 has not killed anybody, people are dying in my village and the same thing with Toro. Yellow fever started from Yankari Game Reserve, and it affected so many states, Yobe and Kano.
“I was the first governor to go to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abuja and Dr Chikwe said he would establish a laboratory for us here not only for COVID-19, but for Lassa fever and yellow fever. But they politicised the thing and took the laboratory elsewhere.
“We want to establish our own laboratory; I don’t have to rely on the Federal Government, even though some agencies of the Federal Government are helping me, but I’ll have to look inwards, free resources and establish our own, I’ll do it in Bauchi and Azare.”
The governor described Bauchi and Ebonyi states as the epicentre of Lassa fever in the country.