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Monkey Pox: Cases Rise In Bayelsa, Patients Responding To Treatment – Commissioner

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The number of patients reported to be receiving treatment for the communicable monkey pox, which broke out in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, has risen from 11 to 13.
The patients, including a medical doctor and a 17-year-old boy, currently isolated at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, are responding to treatment and are at various stages of recovery.
Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Health, who addressed a news conference on Friday, along with his Information counterpart, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said there was no cause for alarm as the state had taken steps to curtail further spread.
Etebu had on Thursday put the figure of affected patients at 11.
The commissioner said more than 50 others, who had contact with the quarantined patients, had been traced and placed under surveillance.
He however, added that two of the infected patients earlier isolated had been treated and discharged.
The first index case was reported two weeks ago at Agbura, a rural settlement near Yenagoa.
Etebu said the victim had killed and eaten a monkey with members of his household and neighbours who later showed symptoms of the monkeypox virus.
He, however, said results of the blood samples dispatched to the World Health Organisation reference laboratory in Dakar, Senegal for confirmatory tests were still being awaited.
He said it was only the results that would confirm the identity of the virus.
Etebu said: “We, have taken the ‘usual steps’ in medical parlance in accordance with international best practices and the tests take some time because they have to culture the virus and allow it to grow sufficiently for it to be identified.
“That is the process we are taking and once the results are out, the public will be notified about it.”
On his part, Iworiso-Markson said the state government was doing its best to arrest the situation as it responded promptly to the health emergency.
He said the government had since inaugurated a Quick Response Team, which was working round the clock to contain the outbreak.
He urged the residents to be calm and report any suspected case of rashes similar to chickenpox to the disease surveillance teams on toll free numbers 08066987752 and 08035474676.
Speaking earlier, the Chief Medical Director of NDUTH, Prof. Dimie Ogoina, said the state was receiving support from the World Health Organisation and the National Centre for Disease Control.
Ogoina disclosed that the hospital, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health had created ‘mam-temporary’ isolation wards to quarantine suspected cases and assured the public that the facility has room to accommodate more patients.

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