Diphtheria: Kings College students to be discharged soon – LUTH CMD

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Wasiu Adeyemo, announced on Thursday that the students of Kings College, Annex, Lagos, who were admitted with diphtheria on Saturday, are recovering well and will soon be discharged.

Mr Adeyemo disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the death of a Junior Secondary School student following the diphtheria outbreak in the school. Many other students of the popular Nigerian government-owned school were also hospitalised following the outbreak.

The Lagos State Government has since declared an emergency in the school and commenced vaccination of all the students and staff.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is a contagious disease that can spread quickly through contact with an affected person.

Students’ condition

Mr Adeyemo stated that the students’ health had been assessed and confirmed to be stable, making them medically fit to be discharged.

The CMD, who admitted that the students were still in the hospital in spite their fitness, said that the hospital want to further monitor their health condition to ensure that everything is normalised before they leave.

According to him, as soon as the extra monitoring is completed, which will not take any longer time, the students will be discharged to go home.
“The health condition of the diphtheria affected boys under our care has improved, as they are now fit to go and will soon be discharged,” he said.
“Despite their present sound health, they are still in LUTH because the hospital still wants to further observe their health condition. This is to be sure that everything has normalised and there won’t be any issue or case of relapse even after they leave the hospital,” Mr Adeyemo told NAN.

Regarding their medical bills, the CMD explained that the bills would be jointly paid by the Lagos State Government, school management, their parents and the hospital.

According to him, payment of the medical bills will not be an issue, noting that what matters is to ensure that the students have adequately recovered and are back on their feet.

Mr Adeyemo, therefore, advised students, school management, parents and the general public not to relent in taking precautionary measures to prevent contraction and spread of the disease.

He urged the school and parents to give the students all the necessary support needed to aid their recovery, stressing that good hygiene practices are key to preventing contraction of diphtheria infection.

(NAN)