The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has confirmed 40 cases of Mpox out of 830 suspected cases reported across the country.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, disclosed this at a joint NCDC/World Health Organisation (WHO) mpox briefing with stakeholders and partners.
He noted that the confirmed cases were spread across 12 to 13 states of the federation, with significant numbers in the South-South, South-East, Lagos, Ogun, and some states in the North.
“We have 40 confirmed cases out of 830 suspected cases. Fortunately, we have not recorded any deaths, which is remarkable,” he said.
He further added that the NCDC planned to focus efforts on the states to reduce the number of cases.
“We have developed an incident action plan to address each area, using various pillars.
“We have met with state governments and state commissioners of health to advise them on establishing their emergency preparedness and response teams, capabilities, and action plans.
“They will coordinate this with their respective local government areas,” he said.
Idris reinstated the Centre’s commitment in enhancing laboratory services to improve testing capacity in the country.
“All confirmed cases so far were validated using genomic sequencing in two labs—the National Research Lab in Abuja and Lagos.
“Due to the spread, we need to increase the number of laboratories for testing, including Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the African Centre for Genomics,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared the mpox outbreak in parts of Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
Mpox is transmitted through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person.
Mpox: NCDC Confirms 40 Out Of 830 Suspected Cases is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
