Nigeria’s health authorities are battling a persistent and deadly Lassa fever outbreak that has now claimed more than 191 lives since the start of the year, with case numbers running significantly ahead of the same period last year and health workers bearing a disproportionate share of the casualties.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported that confirmed cases have been recorded across 21 states, with the highest concentrations in Edo, Ondo, and Ebonyi — states in the country’s south where the multimammate rat that carries the Lassa virus thrives in close proximity to human settlements. The disease, which begins with fever and muscle aches and can progress to severe haemorrhaging and organ failure, has overwhelmed health facilities in several rural areas where diagnostic capacity remains limited.
What makes the current outbreak particularly alarming is its unusual duration. Lassa fever, which is endemic to Nigeria, has historically followed a seasonal pattern, with spikes during the dry season between November and April. But in several states, new cases are being recorded well into what should be the off-peak period, suggesting either a change in ecological dynamics — possibly related to deforestation, changing rainfall patterns, or disruptions to rodent control programmes — or improved surveillance finding cases that would previously have gone undiagnosed.
Health Workers at the Front Line
Among the grim statistics is the number of infections among medical professionals. At least 14 health workers have died of Lassa fever this year, a toll that compounds existing concerns about the capacity of Nigeria’s health system to absorb shocks. Healthcare workers treating patients without adequate protective equipment — particularly in smaller private clinics and rural hospitals — remain vulnerable, and several clusters of transmission have been linked to hospitals where infection prevention protocols broke down.
The NCDC has activated its incident management system and deployed rapid response teams to the worst-affected states, but aid workers and public health specialists say the response is being hamstrung by funding shortfalls.
A Disease of Poverty
Lassa fever is, at its root, a disease of poverty and poor housing conditions. The multimammate rat colonises homes built with corrugated metal roofing, poorly stored food, and open compounds where grain and cassava are left exposed to rodent infestation. Communities in the rainforest belt of southern Nigeria — already among the country’s poorest — bear the greatest burden.
Nigeria has had a Lassa fever treatment centre in Irrua, Edo State, that has become a national and regional reference facility, and the country has built some capacity to respond to viral haemorrhagic fevers. But the current outbreak is testing whether that capacity is sufficient for a disease that is never fully absent from the environment.
Regional Dimensions
The disease is not confined to Nigeria. Neighbouring countries — Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia — have all reported sporadic cases, and the shared ecological conditions across the region mean that a robust Nigerian response has benefits that extend well beyond its borders. West Health Community of West Africa has called for coordinated cross-border surveillance to prevent the kind of large-scale outbreak that the region witnessed during the Ebola crisis a decade ago.
For now, the urgent task is stopping deaths in Nigeria itself. With 191 dead and the count still rising, the pressure on health authorities to demonstrate they can control a disease that has never been fully controlled is mounting by the week.