Eateries, Recreation Centres Vulnerable To Lassa Fever Virus- Registrar

The Registrar Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) says eateries and recreational centres are vulnerable to Lassa virus, if their environment for cooking are not properly sanitised.
Abonyi made this known on Thursday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the role of the council as a regulator and the environmental health practitioners were enormous in tackling diseases, specifically in this case of Lassa fever outbreak.
`` Lassa fever is a disease which is preventable through adequate sanitation, the major function of environmental health officer is sanitation.
``Environmental health generally encourage quick action to nib spread of disease in the bud, just like the issue of Ebola, and after the control, the robust preventive activities will make sure that such diseases do not reoccur,’’ he said.
The Registrar said that the council’s staff strength for environmental health was so little compared to the enormous work they handled.
``So all the environmental health workers spread across the 36 states of the federation have been engaged,’’ he said.
``We don’t have adequate number of staff within the council to contend with this outbreak but given that in the task the 36 states of the federation, environmental health staff are spread across local government, across state government join forces to fight any disease outbreak.
``We mobilise all environmental health officers as professionals and also give adequate training to volunteers, Lassa fever is not a challenge worst than small pox, or other diseases. It can be contained.’’
Abonyi appealed to operators of hotels, eateries and recreational centres to take care of the sanitation of their business environments, ``since Lassa fever is contacted through rats and poor hygiene.’’
`` If in this dry season rats can access small water body that mammals also drink from, even if you did not eat the rat you can get Lassa fever.
``If you pound with your mortar and don't cover it, then you use it without cleaning, you are invariably inviting sickness and diseases into your system.
`` Nigerians should be careful what get into their mouth as in food, drinks and make sure they take care of their pets as regards sanitation for those that keep them.
``The Nigeria health sector is combat ready both in the treatment and the prevention of Lassa fever that is why we are not very afraid that the disease will spread across population.
``It is now isolated to places where rat contact is higher, our duty now is to go down to the root and make sure that our people are well taken care of,’’ Abonyi said.
The primary host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Multimammate mouse, the virus is contagious and transmitted by contact with the faeces or urine of these rats in homes.
Once it is transmitted from rat to human, it can then be transmitted from human to human, even though the virus lives in the rat, it does no harm to it. (NAN)