From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
 Five patients hit with the Monkey Pox virus have been discharged from the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, (NDUTH)
 This brings to eight the total number of patients quarantined at the NDUTH for treatment and discharged after they have been cleared. Two index patients and a medical doctor who got infected in the course of treating patients were earlier discharged.
 Sources at the NDUTH, said the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof Dimie Ogoina gave the go ahead for the patients to be discharged after a full evaluation carried out confirmed that the treatment has been successful.
 The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Daniel Iworiso- Markson who confirmed the discharge of the five patients declared that the days of the Monkey Pox virus is numbered in Bayelsa state.
 Iworiso- Markson in a statement issued in Yenagoa on Wednsday disclosed that the remaining six patients at the isolation facility at the NDUTH are responding positively to treatment.
 According to him the Bayelsa state government can say with conviction that it has “been able to successfully contain the spread of the disease as no new case has been reported in the last few days.”
He observed that “with the way and manner the government deployed its machinery and with the team of dedicated health and medical personnel, ‘MonkeyPox’ ‎will soon be fully kicked out of Bayelsa state.”
 
Iworiso-Markson while commending the government of Bayelsa State, especially the Ministry of Health and its officials and that of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) ‎for their efforts in the fight against the disease, applauded Bayelsans for their cooperation, for particularly adhering to the preventive measures.
He urged them to step up efforts by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and hygiene wash their hands regularly and avoid contacts with Monkey and other bush meats noting that feedback received from various channels indicated that the public enlightenment campaign, especially in local languages contributed to the defeat of ‘MonkeyPox’ disease.