Nigeria’s Monkey Pox Cases Becomes The highest In Africa
Nigeria currently has the highest monkey pox death toll and confirmed cases in Africa. This was disclosed by The World Health Organization on Thursday.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the organisation’s Regional Director for Africa disclosed this during a virtual press briefing tagged, ‘Road to defeating Meningitis by 2030.’
Moeti said the majority of monkeypox cases are in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana. With 524 confirmed cases and 12 deaths across 11 African countries. six deaths occurred in Nigeria, four in Ghana, and two in the Central African Republic.
Although no single monkeypox vaccine has been administered to any high-risk group in any of the African countries reporting cases, WHO has provided 39,000 test kits to countries, enabling improved testing rates.
Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic infectious disease transmitted from animals to humans that occur occasionally, primarily in remote villages of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the exact reservoir of monkeypox is unknown although African rodents are suspected to play a part in transmission.
The latest data from the NCDC showed that as of August 14, there were 530 suspected cases with 220 confirmed cases in Nigeria.
