Fear gripped residents of Enugu State Tuesday as the news went viral on the social media that a case of Monkey Pox has been recorded in the state.
Health Commissioner says ‘there’s no cause for alarm’
From Jane Nwaoriaku, Enugu
The report claimed that the victim has been taken to the ESUT Teaching Hospital, Parklane.
According to reports, Monkey Pox which broke out in Bayelsa State is said to have spread to Rivers, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Ogun and Cross River states.
The Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Dr Fintan Ekochin, had at Okpara Square venue for ongoing Gift of Hearing Programme organized by the Obasanjo Foundation in collaboration with the Enugu State government said that there was a suspected case in Enugu which his ministry had collected sample from the suspected victim and sent to the National Centre for Disease Control.
But when the health commissioner returned to his office he told newsmen that there was no case of Monkey Pox in the state and insisted that only one case has been confirmed across the country.
“There is no outbreak of Monkey Pox in Enugu, not at all. Nothing has happened, the Enugu State Ministry of Health has a surveillance team distributed across the 17 local governments with a duty to look out for diseases and they are on duty every day. Since last year, since Ebola till today they have been on duty. They look out for Yellow Fever, Lassa Fever, Ebola, including Cholera. Any kind of disease and they make reports on each of them, so they have no report of outbreak of Monkey Pox in Enugu State,” he said.
Ekochin also argued that of all the reported Monkey Pox cases, only one has so far been confirmed in the country.
“Like now, we have this challenge of Monkey Pox, it is only one established case in Nigeria, only one patient confirmed in Bayelsa. All the other ones heard about are suspected cases; you must make this separation, never mix the two. We have no confirmed case of Monkey Pox in Enugu State,” he explained.
He, however, said that good hygiene is the best way to fight the Monkey Pox virus.
“Basic hygiene with our clothes, workplace, kitchen, food, inter-personal relationships, hygiene with handling animals as your pets or as your animal husbandry, agricultural products, hygiene in all these areas. That is the key word,” he said.
He advised the people not to panic about the disease, saying that it is like the Chicken Pox, pointing out that the two belong to one family of diseases.
“The so-called Monkey Pox is caused by a virus; this virus is a brother to Chicken Pox, who is afraid of Chicken Pox? I don’t know of anyone who is afraid of Chicken Pox. It is there, it comes in seasons depending on the weather and temperature and affects a lot of children. It even affects adults at times, especially pregnant women because the immunity is lower. So, Chicken Pox is even a bigger disease to worry about than Monkey Pox.
Monkey Pox fear grips Enugu
