ICMS, Inc Reports
By Tom Okure, Ph.D
---------------------------
The disease symptoms include fever, headache, back pains and
big rashes larger than chicken pox rashes as the disease progresses. Even though the symptoms of the virus are similar
to smallpox, it is less severe than the smallpox virus, which in 1980 was declared
to have been eradicated.
 |
| Monkeypox Virus |
The Bayelsa State government has identified at least 10 individuals
determined to be infected with the disease including a doctor and have setup an
isolation center at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital Okolobiri in
Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state to quarantine monkeypox virus affected
individuals.
The Monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria was first reported on Sep.
22, 2017, when an 11 year old male patient was brought to the attention of the
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and was suspected to have a case of Monkeypox. A NCDC Rapid
Response Team was immediately deployed to Bayelsa state to investigate and
provide support to the state government in its quest to respond to the public health
disease outbreak.
 |
| Monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria's Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital |
While it is a relatively new outbreak in Nigeria, the
disease has been known to occur in other parts of West and Central Africa, and
particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As is commonly the case when unexplained diseases
appear and people are frightened, rumors are floating around that you can catch
the virus by shaking hands with an infected person or through intimacy.
Notwithstanding the name of the disease (monkeypox), medical
research related to the disease in Africa suggest that the virus is transmitted
to humans from monkeys and other types of animals including rodents such as squirrels
and Gambian giant rats. Humans become
infected with the disease through contact with the bodily fluids of infected
animals and eating under cooked meat from infected animals.
 |
| Smoked bush meat for sale |
In a response to the public health disease outbreak and in an
effort to curb the rumors regarding the spread of the monkeypox disease, Mr.
Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health has cautioned the Nigerian population to
stop eating bush meat, dead animals and more specifically monkeys.
It is estimated that 49 other individuals may have contacted
the disease so far, through exposure with other people infected with the virus. These individual are currently being tracked by health experts from NCDC. Nigerian
health authorities have also sent samples of the virus to the World Health Organization
laboratory in Dakar, Senegal for confirmation.
Read More:
---------------------------
All rights reserved by Inter-Continental Mgt. Systems, Inc (ICMS, Inc). The information included in this publication may not be used, reproduced, transmitted, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written permission from Tom Okure, Ph.D of ICMS, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment