The Kano State Commissioner for Health, Kabul Getso, has confirmed that a suspected case of Monkeypox has been recorded in Bebeji Local Government Area of the state.
The commissioner told journalists on Saturday in Kano that blood sample of the victim had been sent to Abuja for clinical verification.
He added that, “one of the symptoms of the disease was noticed in the patient, but we are suspecting that the disease is more of Chickens pox than monkey pox”.
He said the suspected victim has been isolated and put on intensive clinical watch until the result of the sample was received.
“The state also identified 60 people who had contacts with the victims and all of them have been quarantined,” he said.
The commissioner said that a team has put the entire area where the suspected case was recorded under clinical watch, adding that the state has established a special clinic to handle any outbreak.
“For now only 11 states are affected by the monkeypox disease and 94 persons are the victims out of which only six are confirmed.
“The Kano case from Bebeji Local Government is yet to be confirmed. The blood sampling will take three weeks before it is ready,” he said.
A don, Oladapo Afolabi, had on Thursday warned of possible outbreak of more zoonotic disease if the government failed to convey a national public health agenda on human-animal relationships.
Mr. Afolabi, a veterinary expert and lecturer at Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State, made the assertion while speaking on the recent outbreak of monkeypox in some states in the South-south and South-west.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria that the outbreak was a reflection of public ignorance.
NAN reports that Monkeypox outbreak was first reported in Bayelsa on September 22, while it spread to adjourning states such as Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and recently Ekiti, Ogun and Lagos.
The zoonotic disease was first discovered in Nigeria in 1970 when two cases were discovered as a virus in the like of smallpox which occurred in the colonies of monkeys.
Source:( NAN )
