There were fears in Bayelsa State as 10 persons have been confirmed to have contacted the Monkey Pox disease.
According to investigations, the 10 persons, including a medical doctor that have been confirmed to have been infected and were being treated at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ebi Etebu, who confirmed the story, said the state government was working to ensure the disease was contained.
He said health workers in the ministry were looking for 49 other people believed to have come in close contact with the identified 10 carriers.
Monkey pox, a highly infectious disease, is common in tropical rain forest in Central and West Africa.
The monkeypox virus is transmitted to people from various wild animals but has limited secondary spread through human-to-human transmission.
Fatality in monkeypox outbreaks has been between 1% and 10%, with most deaths occurring in younger age groups.
There is no treatment or vaccine available although prior smallpox vaccination was highly effective in preventing monkeypox as well.
The incubation period (interval from infection to onset of symptoms) of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 16 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
The infection can be divided into two periods:
- the invasion period (0-5 days) characterized by fever, intense headache, lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph node), back pain, myalgia (muscle ache) and an intense asthenia (lack of energy);
- the skin eruption period (within 1-3 days after appearance of fever) where the various stages of the rash appears, often beginning on the face and then spreading elsewhere on the body. Crusts occur in approximately 10 days.
Three weeks might be necessary before the complete disappearance of the crusts.
