The Rivers State government has officially announced the occurrence of two instances of the lethal Mpox infection within the state’s boundaries.
Bellnews reports that the Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, disclosed this development during a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, August 20.
Oreh stated that the state had initiated its Public Health Emergency Operations Centre into a state of heightened alertness to address any subsequent emergencies effectively.
“Recently, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control stated that there are 39 confirmed cases of Mpox across the country.
“Out of this number, Rivers State has two confirmed cases of Mpox. We have deployed our medical teams to respond to all emergencies at the healthcare level, general and specialist hospitals,” she said.
According to Oreh, the state government has implemented an incident management plan for Mpox, alongside mobilizing resources to identify all reported cases of Mpox throughout the state.
She further mentioned that the Ministry has recruited and trained ad hoc staff to oversee and efficiently address the spread of the infection.
“The ad hoc staff now have the capacity to respond to this infection at all levels of our healthcare pillar,” she said.
Bellnews reports that Monkeypox, codenamed Mpox, is a disease attributable to the monkeypox virus, primarily transmitted among individuals through direct contact.
It may, however, occasionally be disseminated from the environment to humans through contact with objects and surfaces that have been contaminated by an individual infected with monkeypox.