Resurgence Of Lassa Fever In Nigeria

By Livy-Elcon Emereonye

Sometimes ago, I received a call from some media con­sultants that they would like to come and interview me on Lassa fever. And my reaction was wow, Lassa fever again! Why Lassa fever? There is a possible re­surgence of the fever in Nigeria. We even play “politics” with our lives. Lassa fever had been with us so if there is resurgence now, we have ourselves to blame. This is because, more than anything, Lassa fever is primarily a disease of hygiene. How clean is our en­vironment? What is our person­al hygiene? What do we feed on? What type of health policies do we have, and how functional are they? Our problem is Nigeria is more of a problem of implemen­tation.

 Lassa fever is caused by a sin­gle-stranded RNA virus that is animal borne (zoonotic). It can cause a potentially fatal illness that can rapidly spread. The vi­rus is spread by a particular type of rat known as the ‘multimam­mate rat’(Mastomys natalen­sis) that lives in large numbers in west, central, and east Africa. 

While we are what we eat, our living conditions have direct im­pact on our health. People can get Lassa fever, also known as Lassa haemorrhagic fever (LHF) through contact with the urine or droppings of an infected rat; catching and preparing infected rats as food; inhaling tiny parti­cles in the air contaminated with infected rat urine or droppings; and rarely, direct contact with a sick person’s blood or body flu­ids, through mucous membranes, like eyes, nose, or mouth. How­ever, It should be noted that peo­ple with Lassa fever are not be­lieved to be contagious before they have symptoms. Lassa fever is not spread through casual con­tact (like hugging, shaking hands, or sitting near someone).