Lassa fever: Stop eating soaked garri, Health Workers warn Nigerians

The Medical and Health Workers Union, Lagos State Council, on Saturday said that it would embark on public enlightenment to discourage consumption of soaked garri for now to prevent Lassa Fever.

Razak Adeofalade, the Chairman of the union stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, the house rats that caused Lassa Fever are mostly in contact with Nigerian most staple food garri, a cassava product.

“We are going to encourage members of the public to depart from the process of drinking gari at this moment, it is better that the cassava flour is utilised for `eba,’ because of the use of hot water.

“We are waging total war and that is: `War against Rats,’ and that is what we are going to do to ensure we do not have another victim of Lassa Fever in the state.

“We will also be telling them to ensure that their fruits and raw vegetables are properly washed if they must be consumed raw and cook to the appropriate temperature.

“The whole essence is to enlighten our people because education carries a lot of weight in this whole activity,’’ he said.

Adeofalade added that the union was also calling for adaptation of best practices for food storage to prevent epidemic.

According to him, the union is determined to wage war against rat in the state and public enlightenment on fighting epidemic.

He said his members cut across all government’s hospitals and local governments and would be mobilised to start enlightenment on the evil of rodents.

“We will go into premises, market place and teach them on the best practice of storing of food items from contacts with rodents,’’ he said.

He said the union will be working in collaboration with the Environmental Health Officers to reach out to the grassroots. (NAN)