The Rivers State Government has disclosed that two cases of the Mpox viral disease have been confirmed in the state.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, said this on Tuesday while answering questions from newsmen in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Oreh, however, assured that the Ministry of Health has put appropriate measures in place, adding that the State Public Health Emergency Operations Centre was on high alert to respond to any emergency.
She said, “The National Centre for Disease Control, the World Health Declaration of mpox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern stated that there are about 39 confirmed cases of mpox across the country.
“The NCDC went as far as sending out a brief on mpox nationally and Rivers State was mentioned as one of the cases.
“Not among the top five states, but a state (Rivers) that has two confirmed cases of mpox.”
The health commissioner noted that mpox is a “viral disease and the infected patient can present various symptoms like fever, general weakness and back pain.
“For some people, who may contract it, their body’s immune system may clear it. But some other people may end up with severe symptoms, especially those people who are immune compromised.”
She, however, said medical teams had been deployed to respond to all emergencies at the healthcare level, General Hospitals and the Specialist Hospitals.
Oreh added, “We now have an incident plan for mpox. We are galvanising resources to find all the incident mpox.
“We have ad-hoc staff who have been engaged and trained to combat this infection, and they can respond to this infection at all levels of our healthcare pillars.”
Likewise, the Abia State Government on Monday said it had recorded one incident of mpox.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, who noted that there were 13 suspected cases, one of which was positive, nine negative, and three uncertified, with no death recorded yet.
Rivers confirms two mpox cases, intensifies tracing
