More deaths have been recorded at Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, where yellow fever has been ravaging Umuopu and Ette communities.
Sources told Southeast Post that no fewer than victims have again died at Umuopu while one death was recorded in Imufu Community, whose name was given as Maduabuchi Ojobo. Other deaths with similar symptoms were also recorded at Aji, Ogrute, Ufodo and Umuida among others, bringing the number of deaths so far to over 67.
Altogether, 58 persons were earlier reported to have died at Umuopu and Ette Communities which have common border.
The Enugu State government Wednesday mobilised about seven fire fighting vehicles to Ette where officials fumigated the forests to eradicate the aedes - Egypt mosquitoes which are said to be the carrier's of the disease.
Health officials also embarked on mass vaccinations of indigenous people of the area. The vaccinations commenced simultaneously at Ogrute, Umuopu and Ette.
Although, the state government has said that it had equipped the Enugu Ezike General Hospital had been equipped and also empowered to deal with the situation, officials were only referring people to the Park Lane Teaching Hospital.
The sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday morning said, "The government has not provided any medical logistics for the people who got infected during the yellow fever outbreak neither have they really made any move to curtail the spread of the viral illness .
"The General Hospital, Enugu-Ezike is not having anything on ground to attend to any infected patient except for the referral paper they give patients to go to the state teaching hospital parklane on their own. The government said there is an ambulance service for referral purposes which is a big lie.
"They are not even treating anyone in that General Hospital talk less of providing ambulance services.
"I have been called twice by the general hospital chief of administration to help with the patients they want to refer to parklane but I told him the truth which is the fact that there is no plan on ground for patients with such illness in parklane.
"I called all the necessary people at the helm of affairs in parklane except the chief medical director yesterday when a patient was rejected by the nurses in the hospital ward on the ground that it's an infectious disease and the patients should be in the isolation center and not in the general ward where there are no Personal Protective Equipment, PPE,
"The traditional ruler of Umuopu brought his sister, Juliet Oodo, to parklane yesterday with features of similar illness and they confirmed there is a young man with similar illness in the hospital from Mkpamute (Dr. Odugwu's hospital)
"Another young lady victim, was Kanayo Ugwuanyi. She came in shock on Monday and was seen only by the casualty officer at the accident and emergency unit at Parklane. The casualty officer invited the infectious disease unit and the Internal Medicine Unit but both teams claimed they were not responsible for managing such cases as there was no protocol on ground for the affected people even after about three weeks of the government releasing a press statement about the outbreak of the disease.
"All the consultants in infectious disease and community medicine who we spoke yesterday claimed they were not aware of any management protocol for such cases hence they can't be responsible for managing the patient.
"As at this morning only one person attended to the medical needs of that patient as the management said they were to hold a meeting by 11am. One person worked at the
hospital for 24hrs from Tuesday morning, combining his official duties with the management of the young lady whose brother is a lawyer.
"The worry is that the young lady and igwe's sister were just the privileged people from the affected communities as so many people have died and are still dying as we speak, with so many medical complications."
