Discouraging to be certain, with over 268 dead in 2026 alone. And again, largely attributable to Trump’s gutting of USAID public health initiatives.

This excellent reporting comes to us courtesy of Robert Harriman at OutbreakNewsToday.substack.com:

…Eighty-eight percent (88%) of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from 5 states (Ondo, Bauchi, Taraba, Edo and Benue) while twelve percent (12%) were reported from 19 states with confirmed Lassa fever cases. Of the 88% confirmed cases, Ondo reported 36%, Bauchi 23%, Taraba 12%, Edo 11% and Benue 6%.

54 cases were reported in healthcare workers.

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness caused by the Lassa virus, an arenavirus endemic to parts of West Africa (including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea).

The virus is spread through close human contact, and is carried by the Mastomys natalensis (multimammate rat), which sheds the virus in its urine and droppings….

Onward, with only three days left, until our gentle haunted house will have a “one night only” run, for all the elementary school kids in the neighborhood… smile.

Come to think of it, I should probably have some mylar-printed, electron microscope-shot photos, sitting on a laboratory table (alongside the similar mylar “shrunken head” photos of my grand-nieces), floating in bell jars full of brackish / greenish water — of these lassa, ebola, hanta- and mpox viruses — I guess.

Spooky, too. A bio-science teaching moment of sorts, that. Heh. Too much? I honestly dunno….

नमस्ते