The Cross River State Government has discovered two new cases of M-pox in Calabar Municipality, bringing the number of cases identified in the council to five.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Ekpo Bassey, disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Calabar.
NAN reports that M-pox, a zoonotic disease, is an emerging infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, most commonly rodents. It can spread from person to person.
The governor’s aide, who is also the Incident Manager of the Cross River M-pox Response, said the cases were discovered on Monday, 21 October, by the state surveillance team, and samples were sent to the National Reference Hospital, Abuja.
According to him, the results were received on Thursday, 24 October, confirming the cases. Immediately, other pillars responded to manage the cases accordingly.
“Right now, both cases are stable, and we are monitoring them closely. We are also trying to carry out sensitisation and infection control to prevent the disease from spreading.
“The two new cases were from a boy of about 18 in the University of Calabar (UniCal); the other was a baby around the Ikot Ekpo area, although the parents did not have the symptoms. So, we are trying to find out how it happened.
“Before now, we have had three cases in Calabar Municipality. We have done contact tracing and are monitoring all the persons that had contact with the cases,” he said.
He noted that while the cases were being managed, they needed to wait for 21 days because the incubation period of the infection was between 21 to 25 days.
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Mr Bassey advised residents of the state to avoid eating of not properly cooked bush meat, maintain high personal hygiene and open their ears to various enlightenment campaigns carried out by the government to curb the spread of the disease.
NAN recalled that the state government, in partnership with the National M-pox Response Team, had visited traditional rulers in Calabar to enlighten them and their subjects on M-pox.
(NAN)
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