NCDC Alerts Nigerians About Increasing Cases Of Monkey Pox

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has placed Nigerians on a monkeypox red alert after the health agency observed an uptick in monkeypox cases in the country.

Director-General of NCDC, Ifedayo Adetifa who disclosed this during a virtual media dialogue on monkeypox on Tuesday June 28, warned that if the current trajectory continues, Nigeria might match or exceed the peak number of cases seen in 2017 when monkeypox re-emerged.

Adetifa also disclosed that since January 1, several countries had been affected by an unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox, leading to over 3,000 laboratory-confirmed and one death from the virus as of June 22.

The NCDC DG also said the prevailing media perception and misinformation on monkeypox had fuelled false narratives about the virus, adding that the potential risk of discrimination and stigmatisation from this requires urgent social and behavior change intervention.