The Enugu State Government on Tuesday dispelled rumour of a monkey pox case in the State.
DAILY POST reports that there is panic in the State following claims from unconfirmed sources that the victim has been taken to the ESUT Teaching Hospital, Parklane.
However, dismissing the reports, the Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Dr Fintan Ekochin, declared that “There is no outbreak of Monkey Pox in Enugu, not at all. Nothing has happened, the Enugu State Ministry of Health has a surveillance team distributed across the 17 local governments with a duty to look out for diseases and they are on duty every day. Since last year, since Ebola till today they have been on duty.”
“They look out for Yellow Fever, Lassa Fever, Ebola, including Cholera. Any kind of disease and they make reports on each of them, so they have no report of outbreak of Monkey Pox in Enugu State,” he said.
He, however, advised that good hygiene is the best way to fight the Monkey Pox virus.
“Basic hygiene with our clothes, workplace, kitchen, food, inter-personal relationships, hygiene with handling animals as your pets or as your animal husbandry, agricultural products, hygiene in all these areas. That is the key word,” he said.
He advised the people not to panic about the disease, saying that it was like the Chicken Pox, pointing out that the two belong to one family of diseases.
“The so-called Monkey Pox is caused by a virus; this virus is a brother to Chicken Pox, who is afraid of Chicken Pox? I don’t know of anyone who is afraid of Chicken Pox. It is there, it comes in seasons depending on the weather and temperature and affects a lot of children.
“It even affects adults at times, especially pregnant women because the immunity is lower. So, Chicken Pox is even a bigger disease to worry about than Monkey Pox”, he added.
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