THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has identified Ondo, Bauchi and Edo states as the epicentres of the Lassa fever outbreak in the country.
Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, during a media briefing, yesterday, in Abuja, said that those states accounted for over 70 per cent of confirmed cases reported so far in 2025.
Idris said that the three states contributed 71 per cent of the 660 confirmed Lassa fever cases recorded between January and the end of March 2025, with Ondo accounting for 30 per cent, Bauchi, 25 per cent, and Edo, 16 per cent.
The director general said that the NCDC had intensified a nationwide multi-sectoral response through its activated incident management system at the national level to coordinate the public health emergency across affected states.
He said, “As the cases surge in these epicentre states, our response is focused on early detection, case management, risk communication, and community engagement. The transmission remains active in multiple local councils, with 28 states and 125 councils affected this year.”
Idris also said that 122 deaths had so far been recorded, resulting in a case fatality rate of 18.5 per cent—higher than the 17.5 per cent recorded during the same period in 2024.
He said that to combat the spread, the NCDC had deployed national rapid response teams to hotspot areas, trained healthcare workers on infection prevention and control, and scaled up community sensitisation.
The DG, therefore, stressed the importance of early presentation to health facilities to reduce fatalities.
Idris, who disclosed ongoing collaborations with key partners, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), to support surveillance, clinical care, and public awareness, said that the agency was also supporting research efforts to improve outbreak preparedness and response.
