By Martin Paul Abuja
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has extended his heart-felt sympathy and condolences to parents of Miss Faith Isa Tanko, a senior secondary student of Federal Government Girls’ College, Langtang, Plateau state, who died recently of Lassa fever in the school. A statement by Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Chinenye Ihuoma, said the Director, Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Jonathan Mbaaka and the Director, Federal Education Quality Assurance Service, Alhaji Lawal Malikawa, represented the minister during a condolence visit to the Tanko’s family in Jos. Th e minister commended the parents for their faith and show of equanimity in accepting the loss of their child as a matter of destiny and putting everything in the hands of God. He expressed confi dence that with measures already taken by the school authorities, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the health authorities of the Langtang local government as well as that of Plateau state government, the situation had been successfully controlled. Earlier, the Principal of the College, Mrs. Laura Dogo, had explained that four students, including the deceased were suspected to had contacted the hemorrhoid fever and were admitted at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
According to her, “further tests confi rmed it was a case of Lassa fever. Th is prompted the extension of the mid-term break of the college to enable the authorities frontally tackle the emergency without risk to the rest of the students”. Dogo asserted that the college had taken all the necessary measures like fumigating the school, including students’ hostels, washing all the borehole water reservoirs and extensive sensitisation lessons for students and other members of the school community. Th ese, she said, were carried out with the support of WHO and other relevant health service agencies, adding that there was hope that the rest of the students on admission would be discharged and regretting that Langtang had been identifi ed as Lassa fever endemic zone. Dogo, particularly, thanked the Langtang local government authorities for supplying the college with hand sanitisers, pamphlets, fl iers, among others to raise awareness about the sickness. Father of late Faith, Mr. Isa Tanko Tyem, an Immigration Offi cer, thanked the college and the ministry for the support and love to him and his family “in their hours of grief”.
