NIGERIA recorded a surge in mpox cases between September 8 and October 6, 2024, with a total of 308 new suspected cases identified over the period.
Data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that the country continues to battle with the viral outbreak, with 5,114 suspected cases and 1,180 confirmed cases reported nationwide since 2017, leading to 17 deaths.
This comes amid efforts by the national mpox multi-sectoral and multi-partner Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) to contain the outbreak.
Mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus, with two distinct clades: Clade I and Clade II. The disease can be transmitted through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact, and talking or breathing close to another person.
While the exact reservoir of monkeypox is still unknown, the virus can spread from animal to human and from human to human with transmission occurring when a person comes in contact with the virus from an infected animal, human, or materials contaminated with the virus such as bedclothes.
The virus enters the body through broken skin (even if not visible), the respiratory tract, or the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, or mouth.
Symptoms of the disease usually include an acute illness with fever >38.3°C, intense headache, lymphadenopathy, back pain, myalgia, and intense asthenia, followed by a progressively developing rash often beginning on the face and then spreading elsewhere on the body and soles of feet and palms of the hand.
During the five-week span from Epi week 36 to Epi week 40, suspected cases fluctuated, beginning with 72 new cases in the first week, dropping to 63, then rising slightly to 72 again, before decreasing to 54 and finally to 47 in the last week of reporting.
While the suspected cases showed variability, confirmed cases also followed a similar trend, with numbers ranging from a high of nine in week 36, six in week 37 to as low as three in week 38, before stabilising at six cases in weeks 39 and 40.
The outbreak has now spread to 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), affecting 63 local government areas. Males remain the most affected group, accounting for approximately 70 per cent of the confirmed cases.
The NCDC stressed that the national mpox multi-sectoral and multi-partner Emergency Operation Centre was intensifying its coordination efforts to contain the virus, working closely with state health authorities to monitor and manage the situation.
However, despite ongoing efforts, the latest data shows an increase in suspected cases compared to the previously reported cases between January and September 1, 2024.
The ICIR reported that between the first and 35th epidemiological weeks of 2024, the country recorded 935 suspected cases, 55 of which were confirmed.
Between those periods, the disease spread across 21 states and the FCT, affecting 39 local government areas (LGAs), with no deaths recorded, or maintaining a 0.0 per cent case fatality rate (CFR).
According to the NCDC, children between ages zero to five are mostly affected by mpox in the country.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M