JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In 2018 in Nigeria, a significant increase in the total number of Lassa fever cases compared to what had been observed in previous years was reported. For this reason, investigations were made to determine the underlying cause. Published articles analyzing this observation via phylogenetic methods however ruled out emergence of a novel Lassa virus strain more transmissible than its predecessors, or an increase in human to human transmission of the virus as the cause for the increase in cases. Two years down the line, the situation seems even worse off as the number of confirmed cases has reached an all-time high according to situational reports released by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Objective:

To determine the genetic basis for the upsurge of Lassa fever cases noted during the 2018 outbreak and beyond, and to provide a more robust evolutionary history of Lassa fever virus in Nigeria.

Methods:

Whole genome sequences of Lassa virus implicated in Lassa fever outbreaks in Nigeria including major outbreaks in 2018 and 2020 would be collected and subjected to sequence, phylogenetic, single nucleotide polymorphism, indel and recombination detection analysis.

Results:

Data mining of all available Lassa fever virus genomes and multiple sequence alignment has been completed while phylogenetic analysis, mutation mapping and recombination detection are ongoing. Final results will be published in peer reviewed biomedical journals and presented in international conferences.

Conclusions:

The study would add to the body of knowledge on the evolution of Lassa fever virus in Nigeria and would also shed light on the role, if any, that virus genomics played in the increase in Lassa fever cases that was observed within the last two years.