The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said Nigeria had 41 confirmed monkeypox cases out of 100,062 suspected cases recorded in the month.
NCDC’s Director General, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, announced this during his visit to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos.
“I’m not sure what the challenges are – in reporting monkeypox cases. This is because as you know we publish situation updates on our website every week.
“But as at June 19, we have had a total of 41 confirmed monkeypox cases out of a total 100,062 suspected cases. Unfortunately, we did have one death, a 40-yar-old male, organ transplant recipient who was on treatment,” Adetifa said.
The NCDC boss promised to continue to strengthen then agency’s collaboration with LUTH and other healthcare institutions in emergencies response.
LUTH’s Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof. Chris Bode said the NCDC boss had expanded the frontiers of managing, not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also a number of other prevailing diseases in the country.
Bode expressed optimism that the NCDC visitation would further bolster partnership between LUTH and the agency as it was during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our researched efforts on the pandemic were top class and we are proud of what we have achieved in collaboration with the NCDC.
“Many institutions closed up and shut down in the raging days of the pandemic. We do not blame them; the fear was high as apocalyptic predictions were made for African landscape.
“We in LUTH, however, stepped up to the plate and did our own heavy lifting in contribution to the national efforts to contain the disease,” he said.