Lassa fever has claimed the lives of five additional health workers in Benue State, intensifying concerns over Nigeria’s response to the recurring outbreak and prompting renewed calls for urgent national action, Grassroots Parrot reports.
Renowned Nigerian virologist, Oyewale Tomori, has urged federal and state authorities to declare Lassa fever a national emergency, warning that continued fatalities among frontline medical personnel reflect serious gaps in the country’s healthcare system.
Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos, Tomori stressed that Nigeria possesses the technical expertise to control the disease but lacks sustained political commitment and implementation.
According to reports, the latest fatalities add to earlier deaths of health workers in the state, bringing renewed attention to the risks faced by medical personnel treating infected patients under challenging conditions.
Tomori criticised the government’s reliance on public advisories such as hand hygiene campaigns, arguing that structural weaknesses within healthcare facilities continue to expose workers to infection.
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“Distributing sanitisers and advising people to avoid physical contact achieves little when hospitals themselves become sources of infection,” he said, calling for functional isolation wards, adequate personal protective equipment, and strict infection-control protocols.
He noted that outbreaks should be managed as continuous public health operations rather than seasonal emergencies announced mainly through media updates.
Data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) indicates a rising trend in infections, with 74 confirmed cases recorded during Epidemiological Week Six of 2026, up from 44 cases reported the previous week.
The cases were recorded across Taraba, Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi and Ebonyi states, with 271 suspected infections and 15 deaths reported within the same period, representing a case fatality rate of 20.3 percent.
As Lassa fever continues to spread in endemic regions, health experts warn that protecting frontline workers must become a central priority in Nigeria’s national disease response strategy.