Referencing to a report, on Sunday, by the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which stated that a person in England had been spotted with Monkeypox, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has firmed motion of the dangerous disease with 558 cases and eight deaths in 32 states of the federation. The UKHSA announced the patient had just travelled from Nigeria. It said the person is under care at the Infectious Disease Unit of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. Monkeypox is a sparce viral infection, which ends the life one in every 10 patients, but does not spread briskly. An epidemiological compendium on the ailment published, yesterday, by the NCDC, remonstrated that since September 2017, Nigeria has pursued to report spasmodic cases of the disease, with a National Technical Working Group (TWG)tracking infections and bracing preparedness/response volume.
The Centre uncovered 46 conjectured infections were outlined linking January 1 and April 30 this year addition to 15 seasoned cases from seven states –Adamawa (three), Lagos (three), Cross River (two), Abuja (two), Kano (two), Delta (two) and Imo (one) – and no death were recorded
The NCDC detailed 10 new possible cases in April were outlined from seven states – Bayelsa (three), Lagos (two), Kano (one), FCT (one), Delta (one), Edo (one) and Ogun (one).
They detailed new positive cases in the month were established from four states – Lagos (two), FCT (one), Kano (one) and Delta (one).
From September 2017 to April 30, 2022, a total of 558 reckoned cases were reported from 32 states.
It noted that of the reported cases, 241 (43.2 per cent) have been hardened in 22 states – Rivers (52), Bayelsa (43), Lagos (33), Delta (31), Cross River (16), Edo (10), Imo (nine), Akwa Ibom (seven), Oyo (six), FCT (eight), Enugu (four), Abia (three), Plateau (three), Adamawa (three), Nasarawa (two), Benue (two), Anambra (two), Ekiti (two), Kano (two), Ebonyi (one), Niger (one) and Ogun (one).
The NCDC said eight deaths have been confirmed with Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) of 3.3 per cent in six states – namely Edo (two), Lagos (two), Imo (one), Cross River (one), FCT (one) and Rivers (one) – from September 2017 to April 30, 2022.
Also, the UKHSA delineated case is the seventh in Britain. The disease was first revealed in the UK in 2018 after another immigrant ushered the virus back from Nigeria and spread to two other people, including one NHS nurse, who caught it from bed linen. It is commonly a lenient self-limiting illness and most people recover within a few weeks, but severe illness could occur in some persons.
Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections, UKHSA, Dr. Colin Brown, said: “It is important to emphasize that monkeypox is not easily contagious, and the overall risk to the general public is very low.”
Director, NHSE High Consequence Infection Diseases (Airborne) Network and Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Guy’s and St. Thomas’, Dr. Nicholas Price, stated: “The patient is being treated in our specialist isolation unit by expert clinical staff with strict infection prevention procedures.”
THIS is even as the Federal Government said it is cooking up policies to nourish national health system for cost-effective services in achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who explained this at the national flag-off and dissemination of the Nigerian Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL), yesterday, in Abuja, outlined that government “is working to improve the country’s poor health indices through the newly developed Essential Diagnostics List (EDL), which would facilitate access to treatment and promote inexpensive prices.”
He said Nigeria “is the first country to develop her EDL in Africa, and second in the world, following India.” Also speaking, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Walter Mulombo, observed that the National Essential Diagnostic List “is anticipated to complement and enhance the impact of the Essential Medicines List (EML), which has recorded great improvement in availability and affordability of medicines and quality of patient management.”
