Shocking Details: Minister of Health Blames Goodluck Jonathan for Lassa Fever Outbreak

Isaac Adewole has blamed the current outbreak of the dreaded Lassa fever on the previous administration due to its neglect of a medical roadmap designed to ameliorate the situation.

Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole on Thursday, said the current outbreak of Lassa fever in the country is because the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to implement a roadmap drawn in 2012.

The minister also disclosed that the ministry was going to begin testing on a potential vaccine that would be used to prevent the virus. He disclosed this while briefing the Senate Committee on Health headed by Sen. Lanre Tejuosho (APC, Lagos) on the outbreak of the lassa virus in Nigeria.

Prof. Adewole put the number of cases as of today was 129 adding that the hospital which treated the deceased victim of the disease before referral to the national hospital was being investigated.

The minister said that the virus would have been defeated by now if there was the Jonathan administration had the political will to implement a roadmap designed in 2012 to forestall future occurrence.

He said: “In 2012 we recorded 1723 cases, after that, because of the severity, the post lassa fever outbreak workshop took place and an action plan to ensure this will never happen again was put in place.

“But this action plan was never implemented because it was never funded. We will dust the old plan, modernize it and look at if from the political perspective: what can we do to provide leadership, to provide support.”

On the vaccine being developed to tackle the disease, the minister said government has been “notified of a candidate vaccine which we will put through chemical trial to find out if it would work.

“We call it a candidate vaccine and we would want to run it through trials and that takes some time. Hopefully we will do that this year, once we consider it to be effective and safe then we put it to use.

“If it works then that means that we would be able to immunize people in the affected areas but for now we will continue with our surveillance,” he said.