Monkeypox Cases Rise To 220 Across 29 Nigerian States

The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, said Monkeypox has spread across 29 states of the country with 220 confirmed cases, 530 suspected cases, and four deaths between January 1 and August 14, 2022.

Adetifa revealed this at a ministerial press briefing on COVID-19 and developments in the health sector on Tuesday in Abuja.

Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic infectious disease (i.e. an infection transmitted from animals to humans) that occurred mainly in Central and West Africa but is now increasingly spreading outside the regions. It is caused by a virus that belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.

The World Health Organisation declared Monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

The NCDC DG also said that there have been 3,610 suspected cases of Cholera, including 91 deaths which were recorded in 31 states in 2022.

According to him, the suspected cases mostly afflicted the age group of fewer than five years adding that surveillance and risk communication efforts had been expanded and there are plans to review the National Cholera Plan.

“We are also working to develop state-level preparedness and response plans,” he said, adding that the NCDC was looking into getting treatments as a key priority as an option to offer people who were at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death.

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, hospitalization, and deaths.

“As we know the situation with monkeypox vaccine access is very topical, but there are not enough doses of vaccines. Potentially, a lot more doses will become available but because of challenges with manufacturing factories and an unexpected uptick in monkeypox cases, the vaccine may not be available until 2023.

“But given our local epidemiology, we believe that looking for therapeutic options is the way to go.

“This means that there is now a need for the coordinated and concerted international response given the unexpected and exponential rise in cases in countries that are not reporting monkeypox cases.

“Since the first of January 2022, 96 countries in the world have reported more than a total of 40,000 confirmed monkeypox cases including 12 deaths.

“In Nigeria, from the beginning of the year up to August 14, we have 220 confirmed cases from 530 suspected cases and four deaths from 29 states and we are continuing efforts to strengthen surveillance from the national and subnational levels to ensure that we actively conduct risk communication and community engagement.

“We have state-level training going on with state epidemiology teams involving infectious diseases experts as well as the representatives of both the National Infectious Diseases Society and National Association of Dermatologists.”

The NCDC Director-General also noted that there was currently no case of Marburg virus disease in Nigeria.

“Currently, no case of Marburg virus disease has been reported in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the NCDC-led multisectoral National Emerging Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases Working Group which coordinates preparedness efforts for the MVD, and other emerging viral hemorrhagic diseases, conducted a rapid risk assessment to guide in-country preparedness activities last month.

“Available data suggest that the overall risk of the disease in 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.

Ifedayo further revealed that 5,441,162 samples of COVID-19 had been tested, with 262,748 confirmed cases recorded while 256,518 cases were discharged and 3,147 deaths recorded.

He cited Lagos, FCT, Rivers, Kaduna, and Oyo as the top five states with the highest cumulative number of cases.