The Gombe State government has confirmed three cases of monkeypox out of 19 suspected cases reported to the state’s Ministry of Health.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, disclosed this to newsmen Tuesday.
He said, “The three cases presented to us were having fever, which lasted for more than a week despite treatment for common causes of fever. They also developed rashes on faces and other parts of their body, which prompted the suspicion of monkeypox.
Dahiru, who doubles as the state incident manager revealed that the state opted for testing with Polymerase Chain Reaction, which is the World Health Organisation’s approved method in order to ascertain the actual position of patients.
According to him, no death has been recorded, stressing that recovery was between three to four weeks period.
“In the light of the above scenarios, I hereby declare the outbreak of monkeypox in Gombe State.”
He said the ministry had activated an Incident Management System (IMS) with full responsibilities for surveillance and effective response aimed at controlling the outbreak.
He listed the symptoms as fever, headache, body pain, weakness, lymph node swelling as well as body rashes that start from the face and subsequently spread to other parts of the body, including the palms and soles of the feet.
“The disease can be transmitted from infected animals to human beings through direct contact or body fluid and waste product of infected animal.
“Also, human to human transmission occurs directly through contact with body fluids of an infected person or indirectly through contact with surfaces contaminated by a patient,” he added.
“Members of the public are advised to imbibe good personal and environmental hygiene and to report suspected cases to the nearest health facility.
“Be rest assured that the government is doing all it can to protect its people from this and any other outbreak,” the commissioner said.
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