The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has stated that the country is not currently facing a “serious threat” from the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV).
Despite concerns about the virus outbreak in other parts of the world, the NCDC reassured Nigerians that the country is safe, and there is no need for alarm.
“Let me say, there’s no serious threat for now. That’s one. Two, this HMPV virus, it’s not a new virus. It’s just that it’s not well-known. But it’s been implicated in many respiratory infections over the years, over the countries, especially in children, and elderly people,” the NCDC Director-General Jide Idris said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily
“Just like the normal flu, old virus or influenza, respiratory virus, it’s just one of those causes of respiratory problems.”
‘We Learned our Lessons’
The NCDC boss said the country is monitoring the situation and is on high alert with no cases reported in Nigeria yet.
“We are in a monitoring and alert phase, and that’s why again we take instructions from WHO globally because every country is supposed to report cases like this, any case; any problem to WHO – those things that they consider might become global problems later so that they can alert every other country to get prepared,” he said on the breakfast show.
“That’s precisely what we are doing in Nigeria. We’ve experienced some major problems – we had Ebola, and we had COVID. With those two, we developed some capabilities. We learned our lessons and put infrastructures in place. So we’ve got public health infrastructures. These are things you need to put in place in expectation of things like this so that you don’t have to start running helter-skelter.”
The NCDC DG listed avoiding overcrowded places, washing hands, and others as part of measures against the HMPV.