By Joseph Erunke

Abuja— No fewer than 95 deaths have been recorded from the Lassa fever outbreak since January 2025, while 509 cases have been reported in 70 local government areas,LGA.

This came as the country reported a total of 627 measles cases across 30 states and 213 local government councils in January 2025.

The Lassa fever cases were in 12 states of the federation, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, which disclosed this on Wednesday in its situation report for Week 8.
NCDC said the confirmed cases, which span from February 17 to 23, 2025, were reported in Bauchi, Ondo, Edo, Taraba, Ebonyi, Plateau, Benue, and Kogi states, respectively.

The nation’s disease control and prevention agency, however, disclosed that one health worker was infected.
The NCDC Director General, Dr. Jide Idris, said the development represented a significant decrease from the 2,157 cases the country recorded in January 2024.

He said the measles situation report for Epidemiological Week 7 (February 10–16, 2025) showed that 112 of the suspected cases (17.86 percent) had been laboratory-confirmed, with no confirmed deaths.

Idris said this was a notable improvement from the same period in 2024, which saw 23 confirmed measles deaths, resulting in a case fatality rate of 0.96 per cent.

According to him, Katsina (102), Jigawa (84), Akwa Ibom (56), Kebbi (52), and Enugu (32) recorded the highest number of suspected cases, accounting for over half of the national total.

He also revealed that 81.3 per cent of confirmed cases involved individuals who had not received any dose of the measles vaccine, underscoring a major gap in immunisation coverage.

He said that further analysis showed that nearly half (46.4 percent) of confirmed cases occurred in children aged nine to 59 months.

“As of January 31, 38 LGAs across 18 states were experiencing active measles outbreaks, with Katsina leading (7 LGAs).

Other states with multiple outbreak-affected LGAs include Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, and Sokoto, each reporting three affected LGAs,” he said.He emphasized that vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent measles.“The measles-containing vaccine, typically administered as part of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine, is given in two doses at nine months and 15 months per the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) guidelines,” he said.

He also noted that strengthened routine immunisation, particularly in high-risk areas, early detection and rapid response to suspected cases, and public health awareness campaigns are critical to encourage vaccination.