The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), has recorded 40 confirmed cases of Mpox out of the 830 suspected cases in the country.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Nigeria is not at high risk but stressed the need for the country to remain vigilant considering that cases are being reported in Europe and Asia.
However, Nigeria is to receive doses of Mpox vaccine through donations from the US government.
Director General of the NCDC, DrJideIdris, said this at the Joint NCDC/WHO National Mpox briefing with stakeholders and partners meeting in Abuja yesterday.
Idris said that the NCDC has met with the state governments and the state commissioners of health on the need to establish their own emergency preparedness and response teams, capabilities, and action plans with the support of the centre.
“Right now we have 40 confirmed cases, out of 830 suspected cases. We still do not have deaths. We need to see how we can all collaborate together to reduce the incidence of this disease in Nigeria, Africa and globally.”
Idris noted that after the Mpox was declared a public health emergency of international concern, Nigeria activated an Emergency Operations Center, (EOC) and established an incident management system and incident action plan on what should be done including costs for each using the different pillars.
Also speaking, the Country Representative of the WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo, said that the Organisationwould continue to work with the Nigerian government to strengthen public health measures needed to control the outbreak.
Mulombo noted that there is a huge demand for the Mpox vaccine which is in short supply, adding that the capacity of the current manufacturer cannot meet the global demand unless there are interventions.
He disclosed that “Nigeria will be receiving a number of doses of vaccine through donation from the U.S. government.”Mulombo stressed the need for Nigeria to optimize and increase the number of laboratories to enhance case detection.
