Nigeria's healthcare system is becoming an exemplar of good health communication, reaching both its own people and the rest of the world. A case in point is this post on the Nigeria Healthwatch blog: Fighting Lassa: Five lessons from three special hospitals managing most cases of Lassa fever in Nigeria. Excerpt and then a comment:
At the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Mrs. Martha Okonofua moves around the ward with a smile. The Lassa Fever isolation ward at the hospital is unusually full. Mrs. Martha and her team are working extra hours as they are responsible for managing the highest number of Lassa fever patients in any hospital in Nigeria. Laughter can be heard from some beds as she walks by. Despite a general feeling of anxiety in the atmosphere, her disposition and presence lights up the mood.
“For Martha, this ward is like a personal project and she is instrumental to solving this crisis,” Professor Sylvanus Okogbenin, Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, says about his trusted matron.
“I have worked with the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital for 20 years. In that time, I have worked in the Lassa Fever isolation ward for eight years and became the matron in 2013. I have seen hundreds of cases. During this outbreak, we have managed over 200 patients and many of them have been successfully treated,” says Mrs. Martha Okonofua.
Nigeria is currently witnessing its largest Lassa Fever outbreak in history. Since the first case of the virus was identified in a missionary nurse working in the village of Lassa in Borno State in 1969, cases have continued to increase in Nigeria, mostly in the states of Edo, Ondo, and Ebonyi. The anxiety associated with cases has created panic in many parts of the country and affected hospital operations across the country.
In tackling this Lassa fever outbreak, three specialist hospitals have emerged and grown in capacity and expertise to manage Lassa fever. These hospitals serve as examples to other health facilities in the country as many hospitals in Nigeria still struggle with managing cases of Lassa fever, often leading to panic.
While there are plans to add to the number of specialist hospitals with the capacity to effectively manage Lassa fever cases, these three hospitals have shown that it is possible to grow in expertise in the management of Lassa fever in Nigeria through the sheer determination of their leaders, innovation of their staff and involvement of the entire community.
I just made myself dizzy by imagining a similar report from a Saudi Arabian MERS hospital.
