Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC2025156 (Oral 018) | Published: 11 Aug 2025
Kamji Jan1,&, Adebola Olayinka2, David Dogo1, Lynn Sase1, Khadijah Ojirobe1, Emeka Nwosu1, Elsie Ilori3, Mandi Henshaw3, Suzanne Pentfold4, Michael Adebisi5
1Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Abuja, 2World Health Organization (WHO), Afro Brazzaville, 3Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), 4P95, Epidemiology and Pharmacovigilance, Leuven, Belgium, 5Nasarawa State University, Keffi (Global Health and Infectious Diseases Institute)
&Corresponding author: Kamji Jan, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Abuja, Nigeria. Email: Kamji.jan@ncdc.gov.ng, kamjimj@gmail.com
Received: 10 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 11 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Lassa fever, Epidemiology, Lessons Learned, Research, Coordination
©Kamji Jan et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Kamji Jan et al., Operational insights and lessons learned from coordinating the Nigeria Lassa Epidemiology (NiLE) study in Nigeria. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00018. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00018
The CEPI-funded Enable Lassa Research Programme is the largest Lassa fever epidemiological study across seven West African sites to aid vaccine development. In Nigeria, the NiLE study, coordinated by the Enable office at NCDC Abuja, enrolled over 7,000 participants across three sites. This abstract outlines key operational challenges and lessons learned, offering insights to improve future large-scale research in similar low-resource settings.
Several operational challenges emerged. The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant delays in study initiation and participant enrollment. Mistrust and community hesitancy were heightened due to overlapping health crises, complicating engagement efforts. Effective collaboration with local health authorities proved essential but was not always seamless. Laboratory inconsistencies across sites made case confirmation difficult, while the lack of baseline audiometric data limited the assessment of hearing loss, a known Lassa fever complication. Despite these hurdles, key lessons were identified: the importance of adaptability during public health emergencies, the value of sustained community trust-building, the benefit of integrating local expertise for recruitment and retention, the necessity of standardized lab protocols, and the need for baseline audiometry in Lassa fever studies.
Coordinating a multi-site study in diverse Nigerian settings presents logistical and cultural challenges. However, with strategic planning, community engagement, and methodological rigor, such initiatives can succeed. The lessons learned from Enable 1.0 provide a framework for improving future research on Lassa fever and other infectious diseases across Nigeria and West Africa.
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