Lassa fever: NCDC tasks states on improved awareness

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday urged state governments to ensure improved sensitisation, surveillance, and response to Lassa fever.

The NCDC said while the Federal Government coordinates the Lassa fever response at the national level, the state governments must take responsibility for their citizens that have problems within their boundaries.

The agency said this at the Lassa fever research colloquium and workshop held in collaboration with the University College London and Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gyneacology and Obstetrics, in Abuja.

The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Adetifa Ifedayo said, “We know that there are still gaps, especially at the sub-national level, and that is an area of strategic importance to us as the sort of One Health Secretariat to coordinate input, the government continues to invest in that space.

“It is important to recognise that this is not just a national government problem, states have responsibilities. States have to look after citizens that have problems within their boundaries.

"We think that previous efforts are beginning to show some success because we are keeping case fatality down. And it’s quite much lower in the more experienced centres than in the less experienced centres, so we need to do some more work in the other frontiers for Lassa fever that are beginning to open.”

Representing the UCL, Prof Kate Jones said “We’re engaged in a long-term project with the NCDC on a big research project to try to leverage all the amazing new technologies and new genomic sequencing, the new vaccine which is being developed.

"We're seeing what works and what doesn’t and new kinds of AI techniques and remote sensing for geographic information systems can help us understand and predict where Lassa fever is going to be more prevalent.”

Lassa fever cases have steadily increased over the years. As of April 23, 2023, no fewer than 4,908 suspected cases, 897 confirmed cases and 154 deaths were recorded, compared to the 4,272 suspected cases, 751 confirmed cases, and 140 deaths recorded in 2022.

The PUNCH reports that the research colloquium builds on the strides made in the Lassa fever International Conference held in 2019 and continuous work of NCDC, Ministries Departments and Agencies and partners, in improving the understanding of the virus.

Punch