Lassa fever has claimed 142 lives between January and June this year, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has said.
The NCDC in a situation report issued Thursday said the cases were recorded across 18 states.
It said 747 confirmed cases have been recorded so far this year.
It said, “Cumulatively as at week 22, 2025, 142 deaths have been reported with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 19.0% which is higher than the CFR for the same period in 2024 (18.1%).
“In total for 2025, 18 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 96 Local government areas.”
NCDC said 91% of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from five states- Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Taraba, and Ebonyi while 9% were reported from 13 states with confirmed Lassa fever cases.
The agency said of the 91% confirmed cases, Ondo reported 31%, Bauchi 25%, Edo 16%, Taraba 16%, and Ebonyi 3%.
According to the report, the predominant age group affected is 21-30 years while the male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.8 .
It also said the number of suspected and confirmed cases decreased compared to that reported for the same period in 2024.
NCDC said no new healthcare worker was affected in the reporting week 22, adding that
the national Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Incident Management System (IMS) has been activated to coordinate the response activities at all levels.
