Nigerian Agency, NCDC Confirms 46 Monkeypox Cases Since January 2022

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it has confirmed 48 cases of Monkeypox in the country since January 2022.

The current resurgence of the disease has created fear across the country as people are yet to recover from the effects of Coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 46 suspected cases have been reported between January 1 to April 30 this year, but in all, over 500 cases have been confirmed in the country since the outbreak in 2017.

Of the suspected cases, 15 were confirmed from seven states including Adamawa (3), Lagos (3), Cross River (2), FCT (2), Kano (2), Delta (2) and Imo (1) but no death was recorded.

In April, 10 new suspected cases were reported from seven states including Bayelsa (3), Lagos (2), Kano (1), FCT (1), Delta (1), Edo (1) and Ogun (1).

Out of the 10 suspected cases, five positive cases were confirmed from four states – Lagos (2), FCT (1), Kano (1) and Delta (1).

According to the official report of the NCDC, 52 cases have been confirmed in Rivers State, 43 in Bayelsa, 33 in Lagos, 31 in Delta, 16 in Cross River and 10 in Edo state.

Others are nine cases in Imo State, seven in Akwa Ibom, six in Oyo, eight in FCT Abuja,four in Enugu, three in Abia, Plateau and Adamawa states, two in Nasarawa, Benue, Anambra, Ekiti and Kano states and one in Ebonyi, Niger and Ogun states respectively.

For the total of eight recorded deaths between September 2017 and April 30, 2022, two were in Edo and Lagos states.
Also, there is one each in Imo, Cross River, FCT Abuja and Rivers States respectively.

The recent case was confirmed on May 6 by the United Kingdom International Health Regulations (UK IHR) on a Nigerian resident in the UK.

“The individual is a UK resident who arrived in Nigeria on 20th April 2022, traveled to Lagos and Delta States during the time spent in Nigeria, departed Lagos on 3rd May 2022 and arrived in the UK on 4th May 2022. While in Nigeria, the case did not report being in contact with anyone with symptoms of monkeypox or other illness with rash. The diagnosis of monkeypox (West African clade) was confirmed by PCR in the UK on 6th May 2022,” NCDC said.

Monkeypox is a virus which basically transmits from animals to humans through direct contact with infected animals.
Symptoms of Monkeypox include fever, headache, body pain, malaise, enlargement of glands (lymphadenopathy), sore throat and fluid-filled body rashes (vesicular rash) and the disease can last for up to four weeks.

It can also be transmitted through direct contact with infected human beings or contaminated materials.