The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has expressed sadness over the death of a Senior Registrar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Dr Salome Oboyi, who died on February 2, 2026, after contracting Lassa fever while caring for a patient.

The association said the doctor’s death was “not an accident nor fate, but the predictable consequence of a healthcare system that routinely exposes its frontline workers to danger and then mourns them quietly.”

In a statement issued in Abuja, NARD President, Dr Muhammad Suleiman, lamented that doctors across Nigeria work daily in high-risk environments marked by inadequate personal protective equipment, weak infection prevention and control systems, delayed diagnoses of infectious diseases, poor occupational health structures, and limited insurance or compensation frameworks.

“They show up despite knowing that a single exposure may cost them their lives. When that happens, families are left grieving, colleagues are left demoralised, and the system simply moves on. We express our deepest concern and outrage over this avoidable loss,” he said.

Suleiman noted that managing Lassa fever is a high-risk assignment often carried out in resource-constrained settings with inadequate protective equipment, weak institutional safeguards, and little assurance of support if the worst happens.

He said the doctor’s death underscored the urgent need for improved workplace safety for healthcare workers, stronger infection prevention and control measures, functional health insurance, prompt compensation for healthcare workers who die in service, and improved government preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks.

The NARD president described the deceased as a dedicated professional who worked long hours responding to emergencies, mentoring junior doctors, and providing critical maternal and reproductive healthcare services.

He called on governments at all levels to recognise the death as an occupational hazard and ensure urgent and adequate compensation for the family of the late doctor, warning that anything less would amount to a grave injustice.

“She died doing what doctors are trained and sworn to do — treat disease, preserve life, and protect society. Yet, in Nigeria, when doctors die from the very diseases they are meant to fight, the nation often responds with silence,” he added. (The Guardian)