This Lassa Fever Palava!

In a recent post I wrote titled the sleep thief, I was going on and on about how much I loathed rats and how I managed to kill one that had ventured into my space. Some people might have been wondering why I made such a big deal about that, I hadn't even known the Lassa fever scourge was spreading so fast then. With the recent developments, now everyone knows one of the reasons I made such a fuss about rats. In case you don't have some of the crucial information, read and learn.

There is a piece of particularly interesting information about our dearly beloved cassa via flakes, popularly know as garri. I think you'll be interested to know.

The name of the rat that harbours the virus that causes lassa fever is called multimammate rat( bcos it has many nipples like all these local street dogs after delivery). While the scientific name is Mastomys natalensis.

There is also an upsurge of the disease everywhere. So we should all practice hand washing hygiene. Also all apple lovers should wash them with salt and warm water before refrigerating them to eat. Our wives should avoid testing of dry garri by chewing them for starch in the market. All garri soakers should let go for now. 

The problem is that most of our garri sellers in the market buy their garri from bush markets. These garri are often fried half dry and are subsequently dried on polythene sheets on the tarred roads or compounds in the villages. These rat dive in at will, to feed their hungry bellies and in the process defecate and urinate on the garri, which dry up with it. If used for Eba, the virus may die bcos of the hot water used. But if soaked, the virus is directly ushered in. Please no one should joke with this precaution, except you process your cassava yourself.

Cover image via Pmnews