Here are some common signs to watch out for
Fever
Muscle pain
Fatigue and occasional swelling of the muscle
Itchy eyes
Nausea and vomiting of bloody
Stomach pains and bloody diarrhea
Hepatitis
Hypertension
Meningitis
Cough, Chest pain and breathing difficulty
Lassa Fever Treatment In Nigeria
We can’t talk treatment without first carrying out an accurate diagnosis in a laboratory or in a designated test center.
Here are the procedures for treating a person battling Lassa Fever diease
Isolation
The first step in the treatment of a carrier of the virus is admitting and isolating the person, while also ensuring that the patient’s body fluid and excreta are properly disposed in order to prevent the spread.
Aggressive Lassa Fever Treatment Using Ribavirin & Interferon Drugs
“For people to have a chance of survival, there must be early and aggressive treatment with a drug called ribavirin and of course the normal treatment you give to patients. There is also a drug we call interferon which can boost the immune system.
“The normal treatment for people who have such viral infection is you must make sure you test the person and ensure the patient has enough (intravenous) fluids. Also if the person has bled so much, there might be need for some level of transfusion.”
How To Prevent Lassa Fever Virus Disease In Nigeria
Being a viral infection, which can be easily spread, medical practitioners have always harped on prevention as the best form of treatment. Preventive measures in this regard refer to making efforts to control the rat population around the house, while also ensuring that no food is exposed to rodents since the urine and body fluid of rodents are the key things which cause Lassa fever transmission.
Some people eat rats; those people should be discouraged because transmission could happen when it is being prepared. It is just like we told people not to eat bats and bush meat during the Ebola period so people must make sure that they prevent contacts with rats and then they should cover their food very well.
For those who also like to gulp down canned drinks without running a careful check, there could also be a grim picture as using a tissue paper to clean the opening is not enough to safeguard against the virus. For it to be safe for drinking, there would be need to use soap and water, the medic added.
Do not drink directly from a canned drink. It can be dangerous because you don’t know whether rodents have urinated on them in the process of storage. It is important that we use soap and water to clean the openings of those things before they are served to people”.
Our food can get contaminated and if you eat without cooking, the possibility of getting infected is high. Once you cook the food items, you destroy the virus, so people smoking garri and all those kind of things are at risk. If the rodents urinate on the fruits and you pick up banana or carrot and you just start chewing it without washing, that could be dangerous, so it boils down to hygiene and cleanliness.
