Angela Mbaocha, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezuruike, yesterday confirmed that the state has recorded a total number of 32 suspected cases of Monkeypox outbreak with one confirmed.
In a statement issued by the commissioner in Abakaliki the state capital, he noted that seven contacts have been identified, and are currently being followed up.
Umezuruike stated that active case search have been heightened across all the 13 local government areas that make up the state to strengthen case finding.
The statement reads, “following the notification of a suspected case of Monkeypox on the 10th of August, 2022 at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, a 32 year old male farmer who hails from Ugwulangwu in Ohaozara LGA but resides in Abakaliki said to have travelled to Rivers State returned to Ebonyi on 7th of July 2022.
” He presented with history of fever, masculopapular rash, sore throat, headache and generalized weakness of the body”
“Presumptive diagnosis of Monkeypox was made to rule out Smallpox, sample was collected and sent to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) National reference Laboratory and the result came out positive for Monkeypox Virus.
“The patient was admitted in Ebonyi State Isolation Center and is currently been managed for Monkeypox and he is responding to treatment.
“Since the onset of this outbreak, Ebonyi has recorded a total of 32 suspected cases with only 1 confirmed case.
“Public Health measures have been put in place to ensure effective sample collection and testing to enable laboratory confirmation”
