The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has warned the public to remain vigilant and take preventive measures seriously amidst the ongoing Mpox (monkeypox) outbreak. Although the current strain circulating in Nigeria is the milder clade 2, the country is on high alert for the potential risk of the more contagious and deadly clade 1 strain.
NCDC Director General, Dr. Jide Idris, emphasized that Nigeria is not complacent and is taking proactive measures to prevent the spread of the more deadly strain. He assured that the country is effectively monitoring the situation, with a strengthened surveillance system in place to identify areas with higher Mpox prevalence.
According to the latest NCDC update, Nigeria has recorded 39 confirmed Mpox cases with no deaths across 30 Local Government Areas in 19 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), since the beginning of the year.
The NCDC urges the public to remain cautious and take preventive measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.
“So far in the country right now, we have 39 confirmed cases, and luckily for us, no deaths. We’ve intensified our surveillance system that’s tracking the disease, especially those areas where we feel Mpox has been detected.
“States like Rivers, Cross River, Abia, Lagos, Taraba, and Bayelsa, these are key areas where some of the cases have been detected. These areas are being closely monitored as part of the government’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease”, Dr Idris said.
“So, people should be very, very cautious. We have a cholera outbreak that has so far killed more than Mpox, but again, we are lucky that the Mpox strain that we have here is what we call the clade 2, which is very mild, but we are not resting or relaxing because we don’t know when the deadlier clade 1 will come in.
“We are empowering all the laboratories with reagents so that they can quickly do a quick turnaround in diagnosis. So, we are quickly getting this done because clade 1 is more serious, and we don’t want to have that in this country right now.
“We need to be prepared, and that’s why we’re empowering all the laboratories now, that’s why the border areas are being sensitised so that we can increase our vigilance,” he remarked,
He said the agency has taken a lot of steps in terms of collaboration in Ministries of Health in various states.
he said, “We’ve met with all the Health Commissioners in all the States just to enlighten them again to ensure that they too establish their own emergency preparedness systems, which we have done, and we are sending them materials to guide them on how to make the diagnosis, how to track, and public awareness systems all over.
“They go to different parts of the states and look out to the government again, and enlighten the public on what mpox is all about, how it is contracted, how it is spread, how it presents, and what people should do.”
