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A fresh outbreak of Lassa fever in Benue State has claimed the life of a medical doctor, Dr Vitalis Tersoo Azever, prompting health authorities to intensify surveillance and activate emergency response measures across the state.
Dr Azever, a staff member of APIN Public Health Initiatives in Konshisha Local Government Area, died at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) in Plateau State, where he had been receiving treatment for complications arising from the viral disease.
His death came barely 48 hours after another young doctor, Dr Cedric Tyoor Kondom, reportedly died at the same hospital from bone marrow failure, throwing the medical community in Benue into mourning.
Confirming the development on Monday in Makurdi, Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Ogwuche, said the ministry had commenced case and contact tracing while intensifying public awareness campaigns.
“There is a fresh case of Lassa fever in the state. Only one doctor has died. The victim was buried on Saturday, 20 June 2026,” Ogwuche said.
According to the commissioner, the state was on the verge of declaring the outbreak over after completing the required 42-day incubation period before the new case emerged.
He explained that the deceased had initially managed his illness at home and in a private hospital for more than two weeks before testing positive for Lassa fever.
“For over two weeks, he struggled with the illness. When there was no improvement, one of his friends suspected Lassa fever and conducted a test which came back positive,” Ogwuche said.
The commissioner said medical investigations revealed that the doctor’s kidneys had already been affected, necessitating his referral to JUTH, where he later died.
“We have heightened surveillance across all health facilities and commenced case and contact tracing. We are also stepping up public enlightenment through the media, religious institutions and traditional rulers because they are closer to the communities,” he added.
Ogwuche disclosed that no other Lassa fever patient is currently on admission in any hospital in the state, but noted that authorities would now observe another 42-day incubation period before considering declaring the outbreak over.
Meanwhile, the death of Dr Cedric Tyoor Kondom, a recent medical graduate awaiting induction into the profession in 11 days, has further deepened grief within the medical community.
President of the Moses Orshio Adasu University Medical Alumni Association, Dr Msonter Anzaa, described the deaths of both doctors as devastating.
“It is with a heavy heart that I address you this morning. In the past 48 hours, death tore through our fold and made away with two of us – Dr Vitalis Tersoo Azever and Dr Cedric Tyoor Kondom,” Anzaa said.
He said Azever’s remains were handled by the Benue State Government’s Safe Burial Team before being laid to rest in his hometown in Kwande Local Government Area.
Anzaa also announced a seven-day mourning period and declared that the third week of June would henceforth be observed as the association’s Annual Week of Remembrance in honour of deceased colleagues.
He, however, lamented what he described as persistent shortcomings in Nigeria’s healthcare system and called for renewed advocacy for reforms in the sector.
Nigeria recorded 109 deaths from Lassa fever in the first nine weeks of 2026, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday, with the case fatality rate rising to 23.2 percent — significantly above the 18.7 percent recorded in the same period last year and a level that health experts say reflects a combination of delayed hospital presentation, strained treatment infrastructure, and growing occupational exposure among frontline healthcare workers.
The NCDC’s Lassa Fever Situation Report for Epidemiological Week 9, covering February 23 to March 1, 2026, showed that 65 new confirmed cases were recorded during the week, a decline from the 77 cases reported in Week 8. While the week-on-week reduction in new confirmed cases is a cautiously positive signal, the accumulating death toll and the deteriorating fatality ratio indicate that the cases reaching medical attention are increasingly severe, and that the gap between reported and total actual infections remains wide.
Cumulatively, Nigeria has recorded 2,446 suspected cases and 469 confirmed cases of Lassa fever in 2026, with 109 deaths reported so far. The confirmed case count represents just over 19 percent of all suspected cases, a proportion that reflects both the limited diagnostic laboratory capacity available in most high-burden states and the high rate of mild or asymptomatic infection that characterizes the disease in populations with some endemic exposure.
For the fraction of infected individuals who do develop severe hemorrhagic illness, however, the case fatality rate in the current season is markedly higher than recent years would suggest.
Six healthcare workers were confirmed infected with the virus during Week 9 alone, bringing the cumulative total for the year to 37 as of March 1. The development raised fresh concerns about occupational exposure among frontline health personnel. Healthcare worker infections in Lassa fever outbreaks typically arise from lapses in infection prevention and control protocols — in particular, inadequate use of personal protective equipment during blood or bodily fluid contact, delays in recognizing Lassa presentation in patients who initially appear to have malaria or typhoid, and aerosol exposure during clinical procedures such as intubation or suctioning. At 37 confirmed healthcare worker infections in nine weeks, the rate exceeds levels recorded in comparable periods during previous outbreak seasons, a pattern the NCDC attributed partly to the increasing geographic spread of the current outbreak and partly to inconsistent PPE adherence.
The burden of the outbreak remains heavily concentrated in five states. Bauchi, Ondo, Taraba, Benue, and Edo collectively account for 86 percent of all confirmed infections, with the remaining 14 percent distributed across 13 other states. Eighteen states and 69 local government areas have now recorded at least one confirmed case, the widest geographic spread of the disease recorded in any comparable period. The predominant age group affected is 21 to 30 years, and the male-to-female ratio among confirmed cases stands at 1:0.8 — patterns consistent with occupational and behavioral exposure profiles in which younger men, who are more likely to engage in activities involving contact with agricultural settings or rat-contaminated spaces, bear a disproportionate share of infections.
Late presentation of cases at health facilities — often occurring after the optimal therapeutic window for ribavirin treatment has closed — was cited as the primary factor. This reflects a complex interaction of factors including limited public awareness of Lassa fever’s distinctive early symptoms, financial barriers to hospital attendance, distrust of formal health services in some high-burden communities, and the disease’s deceptive resemblance in its early stages to malaria, a condition with which it shares fever, headache, and body weakness but which responds to entirely different treatment. Cost was specifically cited as a barrier: ribavirin, the antiviral treatment used for Lassa fever, is not available through primary health care facilities in most affected states and must be obtained at secondary or tertiary centers, where the associated treatment costs are beyond the means of many affected households.
Read Also: 4 Health Workers Infected As Benue Records Fresh Lassa Fever
Healthcare facility inadequacy in affected communities was an additional challenge identified by the report. Several local government areas with confirmed cases lack functional Lassa fever isolation and treatment units, forcing referral over long distances and further extending the time between symptom onset and effective treatment. Rodent control in rural communities — the fundamental environmental intervention that would reduce transmission from the primary reservoir, the multimammate rat Mastomys natalensis — remains grossly inadequate across high-burden zones, where grain storage practices, housing construction, and seasonal rodent population dynamics create near-continuous exposure risk.
In response to the current season, the NCDC said it had activated its Lassa Fever Incident Management System to coordinate multi-partner response efforts nationwide. Activities include active case searches and contact tracing in collaboration with RTI International through CDC funding, distribution and pre-positioning of personal protective equipment in health facilities, deployment of national rapid response teams to seven high-burden states, and a high-level field mission to Bauchi State conducted with support from Medecins Sans Frontieres to strengthen outbreak control efforts.
In Benue State, the NCDC and the World Health Organization launched a targeted infection prevention and control ring strategy, concentrating resources around confirmed cases to interrupt transmission chains before they can expand.
