By Kemi Olatunde
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Ondo State Government is intensifying efforts at ensuring that Monkey pox is curtailed in the state.
To this end, it advised that suspected cases should be presented at health facilities as soon as possible for medical intervention.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Prof. Francis Faduyile stated this while speaking with The Hope in Akure on the situation report of monkeypox in the state.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported that in week 30 (July 26 – 30), there were 56 suspected cases in 26 states with 13 suspected cases in Ondo State out of which five came out positive.
Also between August 1st and 7th, there were 60 suspected cases out of which 15 were confirmed positive in 18 states of Nigeria including Ondo with two confirmed cases.
Speaking extensively, he said that government is concentrating on the non pharmaceutical control including public awareness on the media in order to keep them informed on its presence in the state.
While noting that its common symptoms include rashes, he listed social distancing, thorough hand washing and use of hand sanitizers among others as some of the ways of preventing it’s spread in the state.
Describing early presentation of suspected cases for medical attention as one of the major ways of prevention, he noted that two facilities; Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo and the Infectious Disease Hospital, Akure specialise in the treatment of monkeypox.
He disclosed that all positive cases have been on admission in the facilities and added that suspected cases were also advised to isolate in their various homes.
Reacting to the use of smallpox vaccines which was said to be effective for the fight against it as being used in other European countries to check the spread, he said that the state isn’t looking towards that direction saying “the vaccines have been introduced in places where effects of monkeypox have been much felt.
We have been exposed to so many viral infections in this part of the world which are in the same family with Monkeypox.
“Presently, the infection is self limiting and there is no compelling reason for us to start using smallpox vaccination.”
According to NCDC since the re-emergence of monkeypox in September 2017, 985 suspected cases have been reported from 35 states in the country and 398 of the figure representing 40.4 per cent were confirmed, (263 male, 135 female) from 30 states.
The disease control centre added that 12 deaths have been recorded since September 2017 in nine states: Lagos (3), Edo (2), Imo (1), Cross River (1), FCT (1), Rivers (1), Ondo (1) Delta (1) and Akwa Ibom (1).
Before the current outbreak, most cases occurred in countries where the virus is endemic, but the majority of the recent cases have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, particularly in non-endemic countries.
The common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches
