article · Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health
Managing Lassa fever requires timely communication of diagnostic findings to maintain patient trust and support outbreak surveillance. At a treatment centre in Makurdi, Nigeria, healthcare providers experienced substantial challenges when relaying delayed positive results to suspected patients. On average, patients remained admitted for eight days, while laboratory turnaround times averaged six days from sample collection to result release. These lengthy delays triggered severe interpersonal conflicts, including patient denial of diagnoses, refusal to share contact tracing details, emotional blackmail, and erosion of trust. Clinicians also reported facing ethical dilemmas, emotional abuse, and physical assaults. Such outcomes impair case management and compromise disease surveillance pathways. Establishing dedicated molecular testing laboratories directly at treatment centres would reduce processing times, mitigate risks to healthcare workers, and strengthen public health responses during viral outbreaks.
Delayed diagnostic results during viral outbreaks create severe friction between patients and healthcare providers. When results arrive late, patients lose trust, reject diagnoses, and occasionally assault medical staff. This hostility compromises contact tracing, disrupts disease surveillance, and weakens outbreak management. Addressing diagnostic bottlenecks protects healthcare workers and ensures communities engage cooperatively with epidemic response systems.
The findings highlight an urgent operational need for decentralised, rapid diagnostic infrastructure, specifically on-site molecular laboratories and rapid testing systems for treatment centres. Potential end users include hospital managers, regional health authorities, and outbreak response coordinators. While the abstract does not assess a proprietary device, it indicates an immediate need for applied, deployable diagnostic technologies that can eliminate multi-day transit and processing delays in regional clinical settings.
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Introduction Providing results to individuals diagnosed with Lassa fever is an ethical obligation that enhances patients’ confidence and commitment to their treatment. It also fosters trust in the community regarding management practices, improves treatment outcomes, and strengthens responses to outbreaks. However, fulfilling this obligation can be complex, particularly when some patients and their families perceive the results negatively. This study examined healthcare providers’ experiences with the challenges they encounter when communicating delayed positive results to suspected Lassa fever patients admitted to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) in Makurdi, Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study and Key informant interviews were conducted to gather insights from 15 healthcare providers at a Lassa fever treatment center, BSUTH Makurdi, between January and December 2024. This period was marked by active surveillance of the disease and a significant increase in the number of patients treated. The healthcare providers shared their experiences and stories, which were organized and presented in narrative form. Results The patient’s duration of admission ranges from 1 to 25 days, with an average of 8 (±3.5) days. The average turnaround time from blood sample collection to testing and result release was 6 (±2) days. The challenges faced by the healthcare providers included a lack of trust in the results, patients’ denial of diagnoses, failure to provide detailed information about contacts, emotional blackmail, mistrust, ethical dilemmas, physical assaults, and emotional abuses, which are obstacles to maintaining ongoing surveillance. Conclusion The increased time to process specimens and the delayed communication of results for Lassa fever diagnosis have a significant negative impact on healthcare providers. These further create notable gaps in the surveillance and referral pathways for managing clinical cases. Therefore, it is essential to establish molecular laboratories at all treatment centers to ensure a quick turnaround for results.
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DOI: 10.37432/jieph-confpro5-00036
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