Sales of rat poison have taken off in Nigeria following an outbreak of Lassa fever that has left at least 76 people dead and sparked fears of contagion across the country. In the northern city of Kano, the capital of one of 17 states where the haemorrhagic virus has been recorded; there have been “unprecedented” purchases of the pest control product.
The head of the city’s chemicals traders, Shehu Idris Bichi, said sales have had increased four-fold since the outbreak was first announced earlier this month. “Traders are doing brisk business because people are making unprecedented purchases of the product to rid their homes of rats that cause the disease,” he said. Abubakar Ja’afar, who works in Kano’s largest market, said he had never seen sales so high in his 20 years in the trade, with traders in other cities reporting similar increases in sales.
“I used to get between five and 10 clients a day but now I get at least 30 customers… people you don’t expect because of their social status,” he said. “Lassa doesn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor”. Vendors using megaphones and hawking their wares on carts have become commonplace. “I was making up to 500 naira ($2.5, 2.3 euros) a day but now I make between 2,000 naira and 4,000 naira every day,” said one, Awwalu Aminu, 40, in Kano.
