By Our Reporter
The current Mpox outbreak in Nigeria has spread to 30 local government areas in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with 40 confirmed cases so far.
A report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) also showed that there are so far a total of 802 suspected cases in 33 states of the Federation.
This situation report was released a few days before the United States government donated 10,000 doses of Mpox vaccines to Nigeria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) had declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International and Continental Concern (PHEIC/PHECC) following an outbreak of the disease across the continent.
Data from the latest Mpox situation room at the NCDC showed that the 40 cases in Nigeria were confirmed as at 19th of this month, which is the beginning of the 34th week of the year 2024.
No death from the disease has so far been recorded in the country this year.
The states with the confirmed cases are Bayelsa (5) Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Cross River (4 cases each), Benue (3), Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Delta, Anambra, Rivers, Plateau (2 each); Nasarawa, Lagos, Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi (1 each) and Osun (2).
So far, 2,863 confirmed cases and 517 deaths across 13 African countries have been reported in this year alone.
The outbreak has been linked to a new strain of the Mpox virus which emerged in Eastern Congo and has since been detected in other countries including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Meanwhile, he Lagos State Government yesterday raised the alarm over the potential risk of importing a new variant of Mpox, known as Clay 1, from neighbouring African countries affected by the outbreak via airline and shipping routes.
Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, said the World Health Organization (WHO) had identified the new variant’s outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Abayomi expressed concern that the spread of the new variant to other African countries near DRC, such as Cameroon, Rwanda, and Burundi, increases the risk of it reaching Lagos.
“We are here today to discuss the risks associated with the new mpox variant, Clay 1, which is currently circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spreading to neighbouring countries.