Ebonyi State Government says it has began public health sensitisation for the prevention of the spread of the deadly viral Monkey pox, mpox, disease which is fast spreading across the country.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Daniel Umezirike, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abakaliki in an interview. He said that the state through the Ministry of health and other relevant agencies has embarked on public sensitisation to raise people’s awareness on the disease.
According to him, the state government was not relenting in ensuring that citizens of the state were protected against the disease through various health safety measures. He said that health workers has embarked on public awareness on the existence of mpox and the need for the public to maintain standard health safety measures to prevent it’s spread in the state.
Umezirike, who revealed that the state has recorded the first case of the mpox disease, noted that efforts were in place to contain and stop it from spreading. He said that the virus was recorded at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki on August 10th. According to him, the index case, was a 32-year-old male farmer, from Ugwulangwu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state, who resides in Abakaliki.
He said the index case travelled to Rivers State and returned to Ebonyi on July 7 and presented with history of fever, maculopapular rash, sore throat, headache and general weakness.
The commissioner said, “a presumptive diagnosis of monkey-pox was made to rule out smallpox. Sample was collected and sent to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, National Reference Laboratory and the result came out positive for monkey pox virus.”
Umezirike said that the patient was admitted in Ebonyi Isolation Centre and was currently being managed for monkey-pox and responding to treatment. He also disclosed that seven contacts had been identified and line-listed which were being followed up. “Active case search has been heightened across all the LGAs in the state to strengthen case finding,” he said.
Umezirike said that since the onset of the outbreak, Ebonyi had recorded a total of 32 suspected cases with only one confirmed case. “Case fatality rate is still zero as there is no record of any death both in suspected and confirmed cases in the state. Emergency Operations Centre has been activated to coordinate the outbreak investigation and response across the 13 LGAs in the state,” he said.
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Umezirike said the state was currently supporting response activities to contain the monkey-pox outbreak via active case search, epidemiological investigation, contact line listing and monitoring of all exposed contacts.
Measures have been put in place to ensure effective sample collection and testing to enable laboratory confirmation. “Risk communication activities have been heightened to advise the public on preventive measures”, he further stated.
Meanwhile, residents of Abakaliki are urging governments at all levels to collaborate with various health institutions to stem the spread of the disease in Nigeria. They also advised members of the public to imbibe the culture of maintaining clean environments and personal hygiene to stay safe and to avoid contracting the disease.
A medical practitioner, Dr. Leo Nnaji, urged the public to maintain health safety adding that the mpox was a highly infectious disease which could spread from person to person or from animal to humans. “mpox has been designated a global pandemic and government and citizens must synergise to combat the disease and this is not a time for people to compromise health safety tips. People must learn to keep their environments clean and report on time any suspected case of m-pox to the health authorities,” he said.
Another resident, Mr Emmanuel Akah, urged the National Orientation Agency, NOA, to intensify public health safety awareness to educate the public on the existence of the disease and strategies to prevent its spread.
Akah noted that majority of the population were still ignorant of the existence of the disease and its devastating effects. “I call on NOA to raise the consciousness of the people through public enlightenment using broadcast media to educate both citizens on the dangers of the disease,” he said.
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