DATA on Lassa fever from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday, May 14, showed that the country recorded 717 confirmed cases and 138 deaths between the first week of January and May 4, 2025.
The outbreak spread across 18 states and 93 Local Government Areas (LGAs)
The NCDC described Lassa fever as an acute viral haemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus, mostly through the type of rodents known as the multimammate rat or the African rat.
The disease can be spread through direct contact with urine, faeces, saliva, or the blood of infected rats or contaminated objects, faeces, saliva, or the blood of infected rats.
Person-to-person transmission can also occur through direct contact with an infected person’s blood, urine, faeces, vomitus, and other body fluids.
The NCDC’s latest situation report indicates that as of epidemiological week 18, Ondo, Bauchi, and Taraba states are the most affected, accounting for 71 per cent of all confirmed cases. Ondo, with 215 confirmed cases, was responsible for 30 per cent of confirmed cases, Bauchi, with 180 confirmed cases, accounted for 25 per cent, and Taraba, with 116 confirmed cases, presented 16 per cent of confirmed cases.
The report also shows that the case fatality rate (CFR) for the outbreak is 19.3 per cent, which is higher than the 18.0 per cent CFR recorded during the same period in 2024. This means that there was a high fatality rate so far in 2025 when compared to 2024.
While the number of suspected and confirmed cases has decreased compared to the same period in 2024, the high CFR remains a concern.
According to the report, the most affected age group is 21-30 years.
In the current reporting week (week 18), 10 new confirmed cases were reported in Ondo, Edo, Bauchi and Benue States.
This according to the report, was a decrease from the 11 cases reported in the previous week(week 17).
The report also indicated three new confirmed deaths due to Lassa fever in week 18.
The NCDC said it was coordinating the response to the outbreak through its Incident Management System, working with various partners and stakeholders.
The report highlighted that challenges such as late presentation of cases, poor health-seeking behaviour, poor environmental sanitation, and low awareness in high-burden communities persisted.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M