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KATSINA (Nigeria), Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four cases of the highly infectious Monkeypox have been confirmed in the Nigerian state of Katsina, Commissioner for Health, Yakubu Danja said.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Hajiya Mustapha Kabir, the commissioner said the cases were confirmed from the 27 suspected cases recently sent for laboratory analyses.
“The 27 suspected cases were from nine undisclosed local government areas in the state.
“We have been familiar with episodes of outbreaks in Katsina State of diseases like Cholera, Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, Lassa Fever, Measles and the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2019. Monkeypox pandemic is recently gaining momentum.
“Our attention will focus more today on Monkeypox. It is important to mention that the state has so far identified 27 persons from 9 local government areas suspected to have symptoms of Monkeypox as at last week of this month.
“Though no life was lost in the state due to this disease since the beginning of the outbreak. Samples were collected and tested in the laboratory from all the 27 suspected persons out of whom 4 were confirmed positive for Monkeypox.
“We still have pending 14 samples in the laboratory, awaiting final results.
“From January to date, about 803 suspected cases of Cholera were identified, out of which 53 were confirmed positive with Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) across the state,” Danja said.
Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) were activated, Rapid Response Team were deployed and active case search as well as sensitisation on Infection Prevention and Control among others are ongoing, according to the commissioner. — NNN-AGENCIES
