The Katsina State Government on Monday said it is taking proactive measures to reduce mortality rate and manage the spread of Lassa fever and other epidemic-prone diseases, including cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, mpox, measles, and cholera in the state.

This follows the widespread outbreak of Lassa fever in parts of the country, which mostly affects healthcare workers.

The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Agency, Dr. Shamsuddeen Yahaya, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Channels Television, advising residents to maintain personal and environmental hygiene.

He revealed that the state had recorded six suspected cases of Lassa fever alongside one confirmed death.

He further explained that the agency has, in response to this, conducted an active case search and contact tracing, where it identified 15 contacts, and so far they had been doing well, and that there was no new active case of Lassa fever.

“We have an emergency health operation center domiciled in the State Primary Healthcare Agency. We developed a situation analysis. We work together with development partners to look at the situation and ensure that we don’t have a spillage of the disease.

“So we keep track of what’s happening in the country, we have various pillars working together to ensure that we manage and control the outbreaks.

“We also have surveillance, laboratory pillar, risk communication, logistics case management to ensure that we keep people away from the virus,” he said.