The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday that the entry had recorded a total of 39 cases of monkeypox in the country since the beginning of 2024, with a zero fatality record in the 33 states of the federation and the FCT.
Dr Jide Idri, the Director General of the NCDC, disclosed the figure at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday. He further disclosed that the total number of cases in the country presently stands at 5,951, while 179 persons have lost their lives from the incident that affected the country as of August 11, 2024.
In response to the outbreak on the continent, the Africa Centre for Disease Control called the outbreak a health emergency on Tuesday due to the number of cases growing in the continent.
The most affected nations have all come from the African continent, with the Democratic Republic of Congo being the epicentre of the disease.
A new viral strain of the disease, first discovered in September 2023, has continued to spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some other countries around the world are being affected by the new strain, which has been discovered to be more serious and deadly. The deadly strain has now been discovered in the DRC for the first time.
The figure of the outbreak across Africa stands at 2,863 confirmed cases, with deaths standing at 517 across 13 African nations that have reported the disease in Africa in 2024.
In presenting the statistics by states in Nigeria, the DG explained that he noted that Bayelsa led the numbers with 16 cases while Cross River reported 5, the southwest Ogun state reported 4 while likewise Lagos 4, Ondo reported 3, and Ebonyi 3.
The DG explained that the press briefing was meant to issue alerts of cross-border transmission of the disease. He further noted that the press briefing was meant to issue directives to improve coordination and proper stakeholder communication to manage the spread of the disease and further stop its entry into the country.
