The Rivers Government on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, said it has detected two cases of the deadly Monkey Pox (MPox) infection in the state.
Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Adaeze Oreh, while confirming the development at a news briefing in Port Harocurt said Public Health Emergency Operations Centre has been put on high alert.
Mpox is an illness caused by the monkeypox virus that is spread between people mainly through close contact.
It can occasionally spread from the environment to people via things and surfaces that have been touched by a person with Mpox.
According to Dr Oreh, the centre would respond to further emergencies at the healthcare level, general and specialist hospitals in the state.
She said, “Recently, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control stated that there are 39 confirmed cases of mpox across the country.
“Out of this number, Rivers State has two confirmed cases of Mpox,” Dr Oreh said.
Dr Oreh further stated that the state government had put in place an incident plan for Mpox as well as mobilised resources to find all the incidents of Mpox cases across the state.
In addition, the ministry had engaged and trained ad hoc staff to monitor and effectively combat the infection.
“The ad hoc staff now have the capacity to respond to this infection at all levels of our healthcare pillar,” she said.
