Schools in Anambra State, Thursday, witnessed poor attendance resulting from Wednesday’s monkey pox disease scare which began as a result of the commencement of a military medical outreach sponsored by the 82 division of the Nigerian Arny.
DAILYPOST correspondent who moved round the capital city of Awka to monitor the level of attendance in schools reports that some private schools did not open for classes after having announced to guardians to keep their wards at home.
Schools that opened, however, witnessed poor attendance as most of the parents decided to keep their wards at home despite announcements by the government and school management that the school would be opened for classes.
A parent, Mrs Theresa Nwuneke told DAILYPOST that she decided to keep her children at home after her experience the previous day where she said she was torn between rushing to Igwebuike Secondary School where her first son was schooling and Amamife Primary School where she had two younger children.
“The trauma of yesterday is still fresh in my mind, and I want to rest before they will start going to school again,” she said.
Meanwhile, Anambra State government has set up a committee to tackle monkey pox disease in the state.
The commissioner for health, Dr Joe Akabuike who revealed this in a press briefing assured citizens of the state that the monkey pox virus has not been discovered anywhere in the State.
He said the committee will besides effective monitoring to detect any case of such in the state, engage in sensitization of the people of the state.
“We have activated a rapid response team, isolated camps, acquired needed drugs as well as commenced the sensitization campaign to educate the public about the disease.
“The disease is usually transmitted by direct contact with infected animals or by eating poorly cooked meat from an infected rodent or monkey, person to person through infected respiratory droplets.
“Monkeypox is a relatively uncommon disease. Risk factors include animal bites and scratches from infected animals mainly monkeys.
“There is no vaccine for treatment of the disease. We administer the common ones used for the treatment of small pox,” he noted.
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