LAGOS – (FIC Lagos Report) – The Lagos State Government has reiterated the need for people living in Lagos to ensure and maintain healthy living at all times as part of precautionary measures to prevent the outbreak of monkey pox which has recently been reported in the State.
The Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi (Prof) who stated this during the biosecurity update meeting on the situation report of monkey pox disease which held earlier in the week, urged residents to observe the highest possible standards of personal and environmental hygiene, especially through the regular washing of hands with soap and running water and attention to environmental exposure.
While espousing thevon the details about the recent report of the disease in Lagos State, the Commissioner disclosed that three suspected cases of monkey pox have been reported by health facilities in the past one month, noting that the cases were positive for monkey pox as revealed by the reports from laboratory investigations.
Akin Abayomi implied that patients who were treated at the specialized infectious disease isolation centre in the Mainland Hospital, Yaba had recovered and have been discharged. He also infoemed that family members and close contacts of these cases were actively monitored for 21 days, in order to spot any development of the signs and symptoms of monkey pox and none of these people developed any symptoms.
The Commissioner called for calm, assuring residents that there is no cause for  panicking, stressing that the State Government in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health through the Centre for Disease Control is maintaining relevant surveillance activities in all the Local Government Areas in the country to prevent any  outbreak of the disease.
He later explained that the State Epidemiology and the Monkey Pox Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had earlier carried out sensitization for clinicians and community members in some Local Government Areas of the State to increase awareness and promote the reporting of any suspected cases. He advised health workers to ensure that they take universal safety precautions when dealing with patients, stressing that appropriate personal protective clothings must be worn when attending to cases of contagious infectious diseases.
“Health workers are advised to observe universal safety precautions when dealing with patients and report any suspected cases of monkey pox to the Medical Officer cases in the Health Centres in their Local Governments or the Directorate of Disease Control through these lines: 08023169485 and 08023377487,” Abayomi said.
He continued that monkey pox can be transmitted by direct contact of persons with the blood, bodily fluid, cutaneous or mucosa lesions of infected animals. He added that the handling of infected monkeys and rodents such as the West African giant rats and squirrels which are the major reservoirs of the virus are some of the other ways of transmitting the disease. He described monkey pox as a rare viral infection suffered by animals which is transmissible to mancauses. He hinted that it is caused by Monkeypox virus, noting that the symptoms in human is similar to those seen on chicken pox patients although less severe.
