The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, said the Monkeypox cases in the country had risen to 220.
Dr. Adetifa made this known at the ministerial press briefing on COVID-19 and developments in the health sector held in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the confirmed cases were recorded from 29 states in the country.
According to him, there were 530 suspected cases of Monkeypox and four deaths recorded in the country as of August 14, 2022.
Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic infectious disease (i.e. an infection transmitted from animals to humans) that occurs sporadically, primarily in remote villages of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
Dr. Adetifa said the centre was looking into obtaining treatments as a key priority as an option to offer people who were at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and deaths.
He said, “We are also looking into obtaining treatments as a key priority so that we have an option to offer people who are at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and deaths.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, said the Monkeypox cases in the country had risen to 220.
Dr. Adetifa made this known at the ministerial press briefing on COVID-19 and developments in the health sector held in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the confirmed cases were recorded from 29 states in the country.
According to him, there were 530 suspected cases of Monkeypox and four deaths recorded in the country as of August 14, 2022.
Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic infectious disease (i.e. an infection transmitted from animals to humans) that occurs sporadically, primarily in remote villages of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
Dr. Adetifa said the centre was looking into obtaining treatments as a key priority as an option to offer people who were at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and deaths.
He said, “We are also looking into obtaining treatments as a key priority so that we have an option to offer people who are at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and deaths.
On Marburg, the NCDC boss said Ghana was currently on a 42nd day countdown to declare the end of the Marburg outbreak.
“Currently, no case of Marburg virus disease has been reported in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the NCDC-led multisectoral National Emerging Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases Working Group that coordinates preparedness efforts for the MVD, and other emerging viral haemorrhagic diseases, conducted a rapid risk assessment to guide in-country preparedness activities last month.
“Available data suggest that the overall risk of the disease on the Nigerian population is Moderate. Nigeria has the capacity to test for the virus at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital laboratory Centre for Human and Zoonotic Virology.
“However, we are scaling up diagnostic capacity to other laboratories within our network. We have also heightened surveillance efforts at the point of entry, trained rapid response teams, and amplified risk communication and the NCDC’s Incident Coordination Centre is operating in alert mode,” he said.