-Lagos Suspected Cases Tested Negative
Contrary to the widespread notion that there are several cases of monkeypox infection in Bayelsa and either other states, laboratory confirmatory results have shown that there are only four cases of the viral disease in the country.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, the four suspected cases of the viral infection in Lagos State have tested negative, as the WHO Regional Laboratory result has shown.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Health, and Professor Isaac Adewole disclosed to news men that the ministry had received laboratory confirmation for Monkeypox virus from three of the cases from the WHO Regional Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal, adding that samples from 12 other cases from Bayelsa were negative.
He further noted that: “With these results, four suspected Monkeypox outbreak in Yenagoa have been confirmed with laboratory evidence. The most likely source of infection is a primary zoonotic transmission, from an animal, with secondary person-to-person transmission”.
Adewole who sum up other suspected cases since the initial announcement of the outbreak to be 43, from eight other States (Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ekiti, Lagos, Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers, and FCT), explained that the four cases from Lagos have been confirmed to be negative.
While assuring Nigerians of further investigations into the outbreak, he added that many of these cases being reported from other states in Nigeria were not caused by the Monkeypox virus.
