The number of confirmed cases of monkeypox in Nigeria has risen to 172 in the country. This is according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which noted that so far, Nigeria has a total of 172 Monkeypox infections and four deaths recorded in 2022. The latest situation report by NCDC, released on Sunday, revealed that over 50 per cent of the cases were recorded among men. NCDC's Week 31 reports indicated the spread has reached 27 states since January. From January 1 to August 7, 2022, NCDCD said four deaths were recorded from four states, Delta (1), Lagos (1), Ondo (1), and Akwa Ibom (1). The report read in part, "60 new suspected cases were reported in Epi Week 31, 2022 (August 1-7, 2022) from 19 states.
"Of the 60 suspected cases, 15 new confirmed new cases have been recorded in Epi Week 31 from 10 states – Imo (3), FCT (2), Ondo (2), Rivers (2), Abia (1), Anambra (1), Ebonyi (1), Edo (1), Ogun (1), and Nasarawa (1).
"From January 1 to August 7, 2022, there have now been 473 suspected cases with 172 confirmed cases (115 male, 57 female) from 27 states – Lagos (20), Ondo (16), Adamawa (13), Rivers (13), Delta (12), Bayelsa (12), Edo (9), Nasarawa (9), Anambra (7), FCT (7), Imo (7), Plateau (6), Taraba (5), Kwara (5), Kano (5), Abia (4), Cross River (3), Borno (3), Oyo (3), Gombe (3), Katsina (2), Kogi (2), Ogun (2), Niger (1), Bauchi (1), Akwa Ibom (1), and Ebonyi (1).
“Overall, since the re-emergence of monkeypox in September 2017, 985 suspected cases have been reported from 35 states in the country. Of these 985 suspected cases, 398 (40.4%) were confirmed (263 male, 135 female) from 30 states.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has approved new names for different variants of viruses causing the Mondkeypox disease.
The former Congo Basin (Central African) clade will now be known as Clade one (I) while the former West African clade will now be known as Clade two (II). The latter consists of two subclades.
WHO in a statement on its website explained that the development was part of the ongoing efforts to align the names of monkeypox disease, variants, or clades with current best practices. Adding that the current best practice is that newly-identified viruses, related diseases, and virus variants should be given names to avoid causing any cultural or social offence.
