Tag: Monkeypox

  • Yuletide: FCT scales up disease surveillance over Ebola, Cholera, Monkeypox, others – FCTA

    Yuletide: FCT scales up disease surveillance over Ebola, Cholera, Monkeypox, others – FCTA

    By Joyce Remi-Babayeju

    The FCT Administration said it has scaled up it’s surveillance system in order to checkmate diseases like Ebola, Cholera, Monkeypox, Meningitis, COVID-19 and measles outbreaks in the Territory.

    The FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat , HHSS, said it’s Epidemiology Division is in high alert mode on all diseases capable of posing morbidity on humans.

    Director, FCT Public Health Departme Dr. Sadiq Abdulrahaman, disclosed this while briefing the media on the state of preparedness and response of the FCTA health sector, in Abuja.

    Accordding to Dr. Sadiq Abdulrahaman, the FCT is on a high alert mode, as part of proactive measures taken, even though it have not witnessed any serious outbreak of the diseases within the year ending,

    He explained that periodically, there is a weekly review, in conjunction with FCTA partners like WHO, NCDC and Disease Surveillance and Notification officers, who are key foot soldiers at the Area Councils level.

    He said, “for Ebola viral disease, which is a big global disease of public health concern, though it is not yet witnessed in Nigeria except for the last case in 2014, but we are aware that there is already an outbreak in DRC Congo, with so much consequences from quite a number of deaths, and closure of schools. So, here (FCl) we have executed a high alert mode even though we have not witnessed any case yet.”

    “So, proactive measures have been taken. Our surveillance system is heightened, and the FCT Administration bought quite a number commodities particularly for these key diseases like Cholera that we witnessed in 2021.”

    ” We went on advocacy visits to key stakeholders especially in those Area Councils that had high potent of the disease during the outbreak such as AMAC, Kuje and Bwari.”

    “The Epidemiological Division of the Department, under FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS), have gone into alert mode of all these diseases including incidence managers for COVID-19, Cholera, monkey pox and so on.”

    “Also, there is ongoing training retraining of our health workers especially those involved in periodic reporting of these diseases.”

    “Of course, with awareness creation and support from stakeholders especially the media is key to getting to the grassroot, as it can only be mitigated if those in the hinterlands get timely and right information, in order to take the right decision concerning their health”.

    Dr. Abdulrahaman noted, “For cerebral spinal meningitis, from january to date, we witnessed zero case, for cholera witnessed only two suspected cases, and zero laboratory confirmed; and for viral hemorrhagic fever specially Lassa fever which is endemic, we had 11 suspected cases and only one laboratory confirmed with no death. “

    “For measles, we had about 245 suspected cases, and zero laboratory confirmed. And for Monkey pox, which had brought a wave in recent past, cumulatively, we had about 58 suspected cases, with 9 confirmed in the FCT from January to date”.

    “On COVID-19, the Director, noted that despite the presidential directive on 12th December, 2022, relaxing of safety measures and travel advisory in the country, there is still emphasis on issues around gathering, the use of masks and travel protocols especially for the vulnerable groups, as the deadly disease still surges in the world.”

    “We are not yet celebrating, as the disease has diffused in most countries including Nigeria. So, the pronouncement from the Presidential steering Committee was as a result of sustained reduction in both clinical and laboratory tests visa vice infection transmission of the disease.”

    He awarded a good mark on the FCT and said, “Good enough, at the FCT level, we have been recording zero case. From the ongoing test specifically from our public health facilities and registered consortium of laboratories, which have testing travelers, the report still record zero case as at week 49.”

  • Monkeypox Still Global Health Emergency – WHO

    Monkeypox Still Global Health Emergency – WHO

    The World Health Organization said Tuesday that its emergency committee had determined that monkeypox should continue to be classified as a global health emergency.

    Following a meeting on October 20 about the virus that suddenly started spreading across the world in May, the experts “held the consensus view that the event continues to meet the … criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” WHO said in a statement.

    The UN health agency first declared the so-called PHEIC — its highest level of alarm — on July 23, and the experts said that while some progress had been made in reining in the disease, it was too soon to declare the emergency over.

    WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had accepted and agreed with the experts’ advice, the statement said.

    Since monkeypox suddenly began spreading beyond the West African countries where it has long been endemic six months ago, it has killed 36 people out of more than 77,000 cases across 109 countries, according to a WHO count.

    The outbreak outside of West Africa has primarily affected young men who have sex with men.

    But since peaking in July, the number of people infected with the disease that causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, has consistently fallen, particularly in Europe and North America, the hardest hit areas in the early stages of the global outbreak.

    The number of new global cases fell by 41 percent in the seven days up to Monday compared to the previous week, the WHO said.

    But WHO’s emergency committee stressed that there were a number of lingering causes for concern.

    They listed ongoing transmission in some regions, continuing preparedness and response inequity within and between countries, and the potential for greater health impacts if the virus begins spreading more among more vulnerable populations.

    They also pointed to the continuing risk of stigma and discrimination, weak health systems in some developing countries leading to under-reporting and the lack of equitable access to diagnostics, antivirals and vaccines.

  • WHO Declares Monkeypox Global Emergency, Triggers Highest Alert

    WHO Declares Monkeypox Global Emergency, Triggers Highest Alert

    The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 16,000 people in 72 countries, to be a global health emergency — the highest alarm it can sound.

    “I have decided that the global #monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

    He said a committee of experts who met on Thursday was unable to reach a consensus, so it fell on him to decide whether to trigger the highest alert possible.

    “WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region where we assess the risk as high,” he added.

    Monkeypox has affected over 15,800 people in 72 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 20.

    A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

    On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee (EC) of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) — the UN health agency’s highest alert level.

    But a majority advised Tedros that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.

    The second meeting was called on Thursday with case numbers rising further, where Tedros said he was worried.

    “I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications,” Tedros told the meeting, which lasted more than six hours.

    A US health expert sounded a grim warning late on Friday.

    “Since the last #monkeypox EC just weeks ago, we’ve seen an exponential rise in cases. It’s inevitable that cases will dramatically rise in the coming weeks & months. That’s why @DrTedros must sound the global alarm,” Lawrence Gostin, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said on Twitter.

    “A failure to act will have grave consequences for global health.”

    – Warning against discrimination –
    A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.

    Ninety-five percent of cases have been transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people in 16 countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine — the largest research to date.

    Overall, 98 percent of infected people were gay or bisexual men, and around a third were known to have visited sex-on-site venues such as sex parties or saunas within the previous month.

    “This transmission pattern represents both an opportunity to implement targeted public health interventions, and a challenge because in some countries, the communities affected face life-threatening discrimination,” Tedros said earlier, citing concern that stigma and scapegoating could make the outbreak harder to track.

    The European Union’s drug watchdog on Friday recommended for approval the use of Imvanex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat monkeypox.

    Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox.

    It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.

    The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days.

    Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of hands and soles of feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs.

  • Monkeypox: 40 yearold patient dies, amid 21 suspected cases in Nigeria- NCDC

    Monkeypox: 40 yearold patient dies, amid 21 suspected cases in Nigeria- NCDC

    By Joyce Remi-Babayeju

    The Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, has confirmed the death of a 40 year old patient of Monkeypox amid 21 suspected cases in the country.

    The agency said that the 40-year-old dead patient had underlying co-morbidity and was on immunosuppressive medications.

    The NCDC website on Monkeypox Emergency operations gave a breakdown on Monkeypox infection as at 29th May 2022 , as follows a total of 21 confirmed cases with one death have been reported from 9 states and the FCT – Adamawa (5), Lagos (4), Bayelsa (2), Delta (2), Cross River (2), FCT (2), Kano (2), Imo (1), Rivers (1).

    The agency said that Genomic surveillance and laboratory test carried out showed that so far all of the cases have been confirmed to be caused by West Africa clade Monkeypox virus.

    Also among the 21 cases reported in the year o far, there has been no evidence of any new or unusual transmission of the virus.

    Furthermore the agency noted that Nigeria’s risk of exposure to the Monkeypox virus is high based on the recent risk assessment conducted at NCDC, while the current situation in-country and globally has shown no significant threat to life , adding that the EOC will continue to monitor the evolving situation to inform public health action accordingly.

    Symptoms of monkeypox include sudden fever, headache, body pain, weakness, sore throat, enlargement of glands (lymph nodes) in the neck and under the jaw, followed by the appearance of a rash (often solid or fluid-filled at the onset) on the face, palms, soles of the feet, genitals and other parts of the body. The Monkeypox public health advisory can be accessed via – https://ncdc.gov.ng/news/367/public-health-advisory-on-monkeypox.

    Meanwhile the NCDC advise the public to remain aware of the risk of Monkeypox and adhere to public health safety measures and report to the nearest health facility if they notice the known signs and symptoms of the disease.
    Healthcare workers are to maintain a high index of suspicion for Monkeypox and report any suspected case to the relevant state Epidemiology Team for prompt public health intervention including sampling for confirmatory testing.