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By Bethel Toby
Lassa Fever is a viral hemorrhagic illness endemic to West Africa, especially Nigeria. It is transmitted primarily through contact with urine or feces of infected multi-mammal rats, or human body fluids
Despite its annual out-breaks, especially in Nigeria’s dry season (November and April), it continues to kill Nigerians silently and steadily.
A medical expert in Rivers State, Dr Ngozi Toby, while speaking with our correspondent on the danger of the disease and how to create awareness on its solutions recently in Port-Harcourt, described the disease as an endless malady, directly blaming the lack of commitment from Nigeria’s political leaders and health policy makers for its persistent presence.
Toby emphasized that while other countries have developed robust containment frame- works for infectious diseases, Nigeria still treats Lassa Fever as an afterthought.
She stressed that many frontline health workers see Lassa Fever as a neglected epidemic, adding that the absence of structured prevention, poor funding of isolation centres, and a lack of community-based surveillance have worsened the outlook.
Dr Ngozi Toby argued that if Lassa Fever is killing political elites the way it kills rural Nigerians, emergency protocols would have been triggered long ago.
“It is a glaring example of how poverty-driven diseases are routinely ignored.
“Frequent misdiagnosis, lack of diagnostic facilities in most states, and poor disease literacy among rural dwellers fuel the spread. Lassa Fever is often mistaken for malaria or typhoid until it is too late.
“Lassa Fever is not just a virus, it is a mirror of Nigeria’s healthcare negligence”.
She lamented that despite lessons from the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics, Nigeria’s readiness for out-breaks like Lassa remains dismally poor.
“It thrives on areas of poor sanitation, rodent infestations, and public misinformation, conditions, Nigeria has failed to improve. Lassa Fever has become a seasonal punishment for being poor and unprotected in Nigeria’s rural zones”.
Dr Toby, used the opportunity to advocate for the setting up of a dedicated inter- ministerial taskforce, with federal, state and local participation, solely focused on Lassa Fever prevention, response, and awareness.
On massive rodent-control and sanitation campaigns, she stressed that, “Just like polio and malaria control programmes, Nigeria must launch a yearly dry season rodent control campaign, especially, in endemic states like, Edo, Ondo, Ebonyi, and Taraba”.
Toby further urged governments at all levels to, as a matter of urgency, train and deploy Lassa Watchers’, such like, local volunteers and health workers tasked with early detection, representing, and isolation procedures.
