Technocrat Media
Monkeypox cases have risen to twenty-one as The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says one person has died of the disease.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the Monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus that causes a disease with symptoms similar, but less severe, to smallpox. Monkeypox is a zoonosis: a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans. Cases are often found close to tropical rainforests where there are animals that carry the virus. Evidence of monkeypox virus infection has been found in animals including squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, different species of monkeys, and others. Human-to-human transmission is limited
The NCDC, in a statement, said this year, that a total of 21 confirmed cases have been reported from nine states and the federal capital territory (FCT).
The states that reported cases are Adamawa (5), Lagos (4), Bayelsa (2), Delta (2), Cross River (2), FCT (2), Kano (2), Imo (1), Rivers (1), as of May 28, 2022.
NCDC said the death was reported in a 40-year-old patient who had underlying co-morbidity and was on immunosuppressive medications.
It also said among the 21 cases reported in 2022 so far, there has been “no evidence of any new or unusual transmission of the virus, nor changes in its clinical manifestation documented (including symptoms, profile, and virulence)”.
According to the NCDC website, a total of 247 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Nigeria with nine deaths, from 2017 to May 2022.
However, over 20 countries where monkeypox is non-endemic have recently recorded cases of the virus, driving global concern.
The WHO said the vast majority of reported cases so far have no established travel links to an endemic area.
It said the identification of confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox with no direct travel links to an endemic area is “atypical”, adding that its sudden appearance simultaneously in several non-endemic countries suggests that “there may have been undetected transmission for some time as well as recent amplifying events”.
The NCDC, in its statement, said on May 26, that it activated a national multisectoral emergency operations centre for monkeypox at level 2 to strengthen and coordinate ongoing response activities in-country while contributing to the global response.
“This was based on the report of a preliminary risk assessment done by a group of Subject Matter Experts from the NCDC, relevant government Ministries Departments and Agencies and partner agencies,” the statement reads.
“Genomic surveillance is ongoing at NCDC’s National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and so far, all of the cases have been confirmed to be caused by West Africa clade Monkeypox virus.”
The last outbreak of monkeypox was in 2019 until a recent occurrence.
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