TNF and Lassa fever: •LFV infected dendritic cells fail to secrete proinflammatory cytokines and fail to activate T cells [8, 101, 102].•Mixed reports of high proinflammatory cytokines [92]•Fatal Lassa fever associated with increased TNFa, sCD95, IL6, IL8, IL10, reduced sTNFaR1/R2, sCD40L, [99]•Increase in IFNg expression in infected immune cells [103]•Type 1 interferon protective, blocked by lfv infection [8]