Doctors in Nigeria have vowed not to have anything to do patients who show signs of the dreaded Lassa fever.
According to the doctors, their colleagues are dying in numbers because they lack protective gears to guard against being infected with the diseases.
In a series of tweets, one of the protesting doctors, Dr Chioma, in her twitter handle, @Deekachy_md, said one of her colleagues, a female resident doctor of Paediatrics in FMC Umuahia, Abia State died after contracting the disease from a patient.
According to her, she died in Irua Specialist Hospital on Wednesday.
“Lassa Fever kills Female Resident Dr of Paediatrics of FMC Umuahia, Abia State. She died in Irrua Specialist. The fight is still in. I will keep shaking this table. We Need Personal Protective Equipment or I won’t touch anyone with symptoms. Naija had not ready to die for!” she said.
Chioma did not name the dead colleague in the tweet.
Resident doctors in Nigeria have been at daggers-drawn with the Federal Ministry of Health over lack of protective gears. They said the government does not care about their health and exposes them to hazards of the disease.
A number of fatalities have been reported among doctors who tend to patients with the disease.
It is estimated that over 100 patients have died from the diseases in 2018 alone.
There is no official figure of fatalities among doctors in Nigeria.
Lassa fever is an acute and often fatal viral disease, with fever, occurring chiefly in West Africa. It is usually acquired from infected rats.
