Monkeypox Can Be Transmitted Through Sex – NCDC
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has warned that Monkeypox, a disease endemic to West and Central African countries, can be transmitted through sexual intercourse.
The NCDC gave the warning in a post on its website, explaining that sexual intercourse happens to be a mode of transmission.
The post read, “Symptoms of the illness include fever, headache, body aches, weakness, swollen lymph nodes (glands) and a rash. After about 1 to 3 days of fever, the rash erupts, beginning on the face and then spreading to the body with the face and palms/soles being mostly affected. “They can also occur in and around the genitals which is why contact during sex is one mode of transmission. It is mostly a self-limiting illness that often lasts for two to four weeks.”
Recall that 66 suspected cases have so far been reported in Nigeria in 2022 with the NCDC noting that of the 66, no fewer than 21 cases had been confirmed..
Speaking, a Professor of Medical Virology, University of Maiduguri, Prof Marycelin Baba, said the disease could be transmitted through skin contact.
“There is a risk of human to human transmission. If you have someone around you who has the infection, it is very easy for you to get infected and sex cannot be ruled out because there is contact,” Baba said.
Also, a medical virologist and immunologist at the Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, told our correspondent that Monkeypox can overwhelm patients with co-morbidity (existence of more than one disease or condition within the body at the same time) and can lead to death.
Kolawole said, “There are different types of co-morbidity but anybody that is immunocompromised due to a certain disease condition and now has Monkeypox may suffer the possibility of death.
“The meaning is that the person’s immune system is immunocompromised; he cannot handle such infections. So, the power of the virus will overwhelm the immune system of such an individual which may lead to death.”
