Cases of Monkeypox have spread to 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the country, raising fears among citizens.
This is as experts have called for increased efforts by all stakeholders towards curbing the situation. Monkeypox is a viral disease transmitted from animals to humans and from humans to humans.
From January to August this year, 473 suspected cases and 172 confirmed cases have been recorded.
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An analysis of situation reports from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that the number of cases recorded in the country so far this year is higher than those recorded each in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. In the whole of 2017, there were 88 confirmed cases, 49 in 2018, 47 in 2019, 8 in 2020 and 34 in 2021.
Since the beginning of this year, several countries have also witnessed an unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox, prompting the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, to declare monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern on July 23.
The disease has been spreading across states and the FCT over the last few months.
As of August 7, the disease had spread to 27 states and confirmed cases risen to 172 since the beginning of the year out of 473 suspected cases. The number of deaths had also risen to four with Delta, Lagos, Ondo and Akwa Ibom recording one case each.
The latest NCDC situation report showed that in the first week of August alone, 60 suspected cases were recorded from 10 states out of which 15 new confirmed cases were recorded.
The states that have recorded monkeypox cases since the beginning of the year are Lagos (20), Ondo (16), Adamawa (13), Rivers (13), Delta (12), Bayelsa (12), Edo (9), Nasarawa (9), Anambra (7), Imo (7), Plateau (6), Taraba (5).
Others are Kwara (5), Kano (5), Abia (4), Cross River (3), Borno (3), Oyo (3), Gombe (3), Katsina (2), Kogi (2), Ogun (2), Niger (1), Bauchi (1), Akwa Ibom (1) and Ebonyi (1).
