Mpox: FG directs states to set up own emergency preparedness, response teams

..confirms 40 cases out of 830 suspected cases

…US Govt donates doses of vaccines to contain the outbreak


By JOSEPH ERUNKE, Abuja

In its desperate bid to contain the spread of Mpox in the country, the federal government has directed states to set up their various emergency preparedness and response teams, capabilities and action plans with the support of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

This came as the number of confirmed cases has risen to 40 out of the 830 suspected cases recorded so far.

Worried over the rising cases of the disease, the United States Government has disclosed a plan to send doses of Mpox vaccines to Nigeria to help contain the fast-spreading disease.

The Director General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, speaking Friday, at the Joint NCDC/WHO National Mpox Briefing with Stakeholders and Partners meeting in Abuja, said NCDC has already met with state governors and their various health commissioners on the need for the centres.

” Looking at the number of cases we have in the country, which is about 40, quite a number of them are in about 12 or 13 states. A number of the cases are in the South-South, South-East, some in Lagos, Ogun, and up north there and looking at the distribution, our plans now are to target those states so that we can reduce the number of cases through active surveillance to detect more cases”.

“We have to beef up our laboratory services, all the cases we have seen so far were confirmed using genomic sequencing in two labs, the National Research Lab in Abuja and in Lagos. But because of the spread, of what is happening, we need to increase the number of laboratories we’re going to use to test. So we are including LUTH and the African Center for Genomics (ACG).

“More importantly, we need to increase all the laboratory capabilities, especially in the South-South, South-East area. We also know that in our network, quite several laboratories can do PCR, but they may not be able to test for Mpox.So we need to beef up those capabilities, either by training or by supplying them with necessary reagents and consumables. We’ve identified several laboratories who are looking into that”, he said.

He hinted that the NCDC was enhancing its public awareness drive so that people can know what is expected of them to be safe.

He said: ”The spread is based on contact with infected animals or infected humans.So once you can reduce, and stop that contact, the transmission can easily be done. Although there are some cases, especially those caused by clade 1B, that have sexual transmission, and also some airborne. And that’s why, again, people, that’s the essence of this public enlightenment, public awareness, which we need to intensify”.

He said there was challenges in reporting confirmed cases from states due largely to the stigma associated with the disease.

Hear him: “There are some challenges we have, we were addressing in terms of data collection, for instance. We know that there are three states we have not reported anything, some states may not report these cases because of stigma issues, or we consider it as not visible to them. Like we did for cholera, we are sending people out. We hope to get more cases, the objective is to reduce the number of cases but we need to intensify active search. All the cases we have here are the clade 2B type, the less serious type, but we also have to be on the alert for clade 1B”.

Speaking at the event that drew a large number of stakeholders in the nation’s health sector, the Country Representative of the WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo, while acknowledging the huge demand for the Mpox vaccine in the country, however regretted that the number of vaccines available was in enough for no.

According to him, the capacity of the current manufacturer cannot meet the global demand unless some kind of intervention is there.

He tasked Nigeria to increase the number of laboratories to boost case detection in the country.

He said:”We showed that the epicentre for this new emergency of international concern is in Central Africa and neighbouring countries. It’s triggered by the appearance of the new gladiator. It’s an opportunity. So, it’s ringing the bell on the need to remain vigilant and continue to monitor microbes in nature causing the disease. So, we were able to show the picture in Africa, also outside Africa, where we have observed already cases in Europe and now in Asia. And of course, Nigeria is not high risk, it’s moderate risk, but we need to continue to remain vigilant because we’ve cases reported as far as Europe or Asia and Nigeria is not safe until all countries are safe, he added”.