The Edo State Government has reported one confirmed outbreak of Mpox and eight suspected cases of Cholera in the state.
Dr. Ojeifo Stephenson, the Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, shared this information with Channels Television on Saturday.
He noted that the state government has been proactive since January, working to raise awareness and encourage the public to seek medical attention at designated health facilities as soon as symptoms appear.
“From January till date, we’ve identified 11 suspected cases in Edo State,” he said. “We got the alert anytime they see any suspected case and we mobilise our team to go in there, collect samples then we do contact tracing.
“Contacts are people that have a direct connection with that suspected case. We always follow them up for the incubation period of that virus, then we can now exit them. After those tests, eight were non-reactive while eight were reactive.”
0-5 Mainly Affected
Meanwhile, children between the ages of 0-5 years old were mostly affected by the Mpox disease outbreak in the country, the Nigerian Centre For Disease Control (NCDC), has said.
Out of the 48 confirmed cases of Mpox recorded this year in Nigeria, the most affected age group is children between 0 -5 years old, according to the agency.
Mpox is said to spread easily through contact with infected persons or contaminated materials.
In an update report on the disease, NCDC said during reporting week 34 (August 19-25), eight new confirmed cases were recorded across five states, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in 2024 to 48.
A further breakdown of the case data showed that 57 new suspected cases were reported in week 34, 2024, compared with 25 cases reported in week 33.
Eight confirmed cases were reported in week 34 compared with one confirmed case reported in week 33, 2024.
Twenty states + FCT have recorded at least one confirmed case across thirty-five Local Government Areas in 2024.