The Medical and Health
Workers Union, Lagos State
council, on Saturday, said
that it would embark on
public enlightenment to
discourage drinking of garri for now to prevent Lassa
fever. Mr Razak Adeofalade, 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 cause 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 stop
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.
