The Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors have called on the Federal Government to increase the supply of personal protective equipment in hospitals following the death of a medical doctor and the infection of 15 other health workers from Lassa fever.
The associations further demanded comprehensive medical insurance for doctors, the establishment of biomedical molecular laboratories in all states for quick diagnosis, and the provision of basic amenities, including clean running water and electricity in hospitals.
In separate interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the leadership of the associations stressed that healthcare workers are dying from preventable infections due to exhaustion, overwork, burnout and inadequate protective equipment, with many hospitals lacking even basic sanitation and running water.
The groups also called for regular training and retraining of healthcare workers on infection prevention and control, the establishment of more testing centres, and better isolation facilities to sustain gains made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The demand by the NMA and NARD follows the recent death of a senior registrar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Dr Salome Oboyi, from Lassa fever.
Oboyi died less than two weeks after developing symptoms of the infection, which she reportedly contracted while attending to an infected patient.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday raised an alarm over the increasing spread of Lassa fever among health care workers.
PUNCH Healthwise reported that the agency noted that two health workers have been killed, while 15 confirmed cases of Lassa fever have been documented among health care workers in the country.
The NCDC Director-General of the agency, Jide Idris, decried the continued rise in infections among healthcare workers, whom he described as “frontliners.”
On Tuesday, the Benue State Government confirmed the deaths of four health workers from the recent Lassa fever outbreak.
On Friday, the NCDC reported that 70 deaths have been confirmed from the viral infection, with the DG calling on state governments to prioritise contact tracing.
In January, PUNCH Healthwise had reported that seven years after the NCDC declared an emergency on Lassa fever, the infection claimed 215 lives in 2025.
In the report, public health physicians attributed the continued deaths from the zoonotic infection in the country to late hospital presentations, few available treatment facilities, poor environmental sanitation, and inadequate surveillance systems.
Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness transmitted to humans through exposure to food items contaminated by faeces, urine and saliva from Mastomys rats, which breed in unsanitary environments and gain access to foodstuffs through poor housing and storage practices.
It is endemic in Nigeria and several other West African countries.
Commenting on the matter, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Bala Audu, expressed sadness over the loss of the doctor and health workers, noting that most Lassa fever patients are asymptomatic when they first present at hospitals, exposing healthcare providers before diagnosis is made.
He urged health workers to be more cautious and called on the government to provide more personal protective equipment.
“I think we just need to be more cautious for the government to provide more protective wear,” Audu said.
Also, the First Vice President of NMA, Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu, called for increased provision of PPE and support for families of deceased doctors through comprehensive medical insurance.
He emphasised the need for financial grants and support for the families of doctors who die from illnesses contracted in the line of duty.
“One of the things we must step up is PPEs for our doctors in our various institutions, and also support for their families and insurance for the doctors. NMA has been in that vantage point in the last few months, talking about comprehensive medical insurance for medical doctors and also comprehensive medical assistance for doctors.
“So, we demand that the government will see to this very important submission so that the families of the deceased also will get an important grant or support system when these people die because when one doctor dies in Nigeria, that means you’ve lost one doctor that’s supposed to see 10,000 patients,” Olowojebutu said.
Also, he advocated the establishment of biomedical molecular laboratories in all states to enable the quick identification of disease-causing organisms.
“I know the state government has built a biomedical molecular lab that caters for all the people in the southeast. I advise that the government also helps us to build these biomedical molecular labs in all the states in Nigeria so that getting samples sorted will not take a lot of time, so we can identify the specific organism causing the problems early enough and prevent the death of our colleagues,” he said.
Olowojebutu conveyed the association’s condolences to the family of the deceased doctor, describing her death as particularly painful.
“We are saddened by the loss of that vibrant young lady. We commemorate with her family, and we hope that this will be the end of the loss of our doctors from Lassa fever and hope that the government will support and also give some solace to the family going forward,” he said.
Also, the NARD President, Dr Mohammad Suleiman, described the death of healthcare workers from infections contracted while caring for patients as particularly painful and preventable.
“Any death, especially from something you contracted from a patient you are caring for, is a painful one because it’s preventable. This is our reality. She’s a mother, she has three kids, she has a husband, she has her parents, she’s likely the breadwinner, and then this is happening. It’s painful, and I can tell you up till now our members have not recovered from the shock of her death,” Suleiman said.
He attributed health worker infections to exhaustion, overwork, burnout, and inadequate PPE availability.
“Health workers are exhausted, overworked, and are suffering from burnout, so you are bound to make mistakes, coupled with the fact that there is no PPE available. PPEs that are available don’t go around. Ideally, if there’s an outbreak, every patient who raises suspicion, you have to have PPE. And you cannot see one patient with one PPE and then go and see another patient with that same PPE. You have to change it,” he explained.
Suleiman noted that PPE includes not just goggles, face masks, suits and gloves, but also clean running water, which many hospitals lack.
“PPE is not just the goggles, the face mask, the suit and gloves. It’s even clean running water. So when you are talking about PPE, it starts from water, basic sanitation water, before you come to the equipment,” he said.
The NARD president called for regular training and retraining of healthcare workers, availability of PPE and running water in hospitals, steady electricity supply, availability of drugs for treating ailments, and development of more testing centres.
“Can we continue to have training and retraining? Can this personal protective equipment be available? Can running water be available in our hospitals? Can electricity be available in our hospitals? Can these drugs for these ailments be available in our hospitals? Can the government develop more testing centres so that these tests are freely available everywhere for people to access, especially frontline health workers, doctors, nurses and lab scientists?” Suleiman asked.
He acknowledged that the government provided isolation centres across the country during COVID-19, but stressed the need to sustain those gains.
“I think in the last couple of years, you must acknowledge that the government has provided isolation centres almost everywhere in the country, especially with COVID-19. You must really give the government kudos. I think NCDC did a marvellous job there. But I think we need to sustain it. We need to make sure that the gains we had during COVID, we have not lost them to a point where we are in 2026, and saying Lassa fever has killed a doctor in Nigeria today,” he said.
Suleiman highlighted gaps in infection prevention and control measures in health facilities, noting that healthcare workers should wash their hands between seeing patients to prevent cross-contamination.
He noted that while Nigeria may not be the worst in the world regarding infection control, there is significant room for improvement in protecting healthcare workers from preventable infections.
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