CONTAINING MONKEYPOX OUTBREAK
A clean environment and good personal hygiene could help
In yet another national health emergency, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced last weekend that monkey pox virus has now spread to 26 states in the country and the federal capital territory (FCT). This is a very troubling development that should ginger the authorities in all the 36 states to move quickly to avert what could become a serious national epidemic. Although only four deaths have been confirmed thus far (with Delta, Lagos, Ondo and Akwa Ibom recording one case each), the growing number of infection is alarming. From 21 confirmed cases on 29th May, no fewer than 172 cases had been confirmed by the first week in August.
First discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in some colonies of monkeys that had been kept for research at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, it was immediately named ‘monkey pox’. But the first human index was reportedly recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a period of intensified effort to eliminate the disease. Data from the United States that has witnessed an outbreak though with no death to date, suggest that gay, bisexuals, etc., make up the majority of recent cases in the country.
Meanwhile, it is not only monkeys that cause the virus. Majority of cases are in fact transmitted from rats, squirrel, rodents and usually as a result of direct person-to-person contact or through blood and bodily fluids. During the first few days, symptoms can include nausea, headache, fever, back pains and in advanced cases, rashes bigger than those caused by chicken pox though like COVID-19 which has in the past two years been a global pandemic, it is treatable, and most patients usually recover.
While the number of fatalities remains relatively small, the real challenge is that immune-compromised patients, especially among children of the poor of our society as well as those with other problems such as malnutrition or lung disease may be more endangered. And as at present, there is no commercially available vaccine specifically for monkey pox. But there are lessons we can learn from the past.
When there was an outbreak of the much-dreaded Ebola virus in the country in 2014, many Nigerians as well as members of the international community commended our health authorities for the swift response in dealing with the disease which at that period originated from Liberia. The manner in which the response was coordinated at the time saved several lives and prevented what could have been a national calamity. But the same cannot be said of the 2015 outbreak of meningitis where the health authorities were evidently caught napping thus leading to several fatalities. We hope sufficient lessons have been learnt from that ugly experience as we tackle the outbreak of monkey pox.
Washing hands regularly with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitiser; avoiding contact with any materials that has been in contact with a sick animal or person and isolating infected patients from others who could be at risk of infection remain the best ways to avoid a spread of the virus. However, to the extent that it is the dirty habit of many Nigerians that has led to a situation in which rodents are almost everywhere, experts are agreed that there is a need for a sustained campaign to sensitise the populace on public health issues.
Therefore, since prevention is still far better than cure, we urge Nigerians to continue to observe good hygienic behaviour, especially given the causative factors of monkey pox. But the ultimate responsibility lies with the health authorities. We cannot afford another outbreak of a major disease in Nigeria.
