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The Minister Of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole has called for calm on the reported suspected cases of monkey pox disease in Bayelsa state.
Health authorities in the state gave been placed on alert and the patients suspected of having monkey pox have been quarantined, while supportive treatments were being offered to the victims.
Prof. Adewole said although monkey pox could not be confirmed until laboratory investigations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) referral laboratory in Dakar, Senegal, he assured that, monkey pox was milder and had no record of mortality.
So far, there are 10 infected people in the state and 49 others have been placed under surveillance.
Below are some things we need to know about the disease:
- As the name suggests, it was first identified in laboratory monkeys, hence the name, but it’s actively transmitted to humans by rodents or primates and by a secondary human-to-human transmission.
- The monkeypox virus is transmitted via contact with an infected animal’s blood, flesh, bite, or an infected human.
- It’s a rare type of virus. Viral infections are generally harder to treat than bacteria’s.
- There is currently no known cure or vaccine but outbreaks can be controlled.
- The incubation period is 5 -21 days. Symptoms typically last 14 – 21 days with severe cases occurring among children with longer virus exposure.
- Monkeypox virus can only be diagnosed definitively in the laboratory by a number of different tests.
- Symptoms include headache, fever, back pains and in advanced cases, rashes bigger than those caused by chicken pox. Rashes, ranging from a few to several thousand, begins on the face, then palms and feet soles. The lesions (or rashes) later become fluid-filled blisters and lastly crusts which can affect the oral membranes, genitalia, eyelids and eyeballs.
Prevention of monkeypox
- Cook animal flesh or blood properly before consuming. Monkeypox virus remains active in infected primates or rodent even after their death.
- Avoid contact with body fluids, lesions, respiratory tract secretions, or objects recently contaminated by monkeypox patients.
- Beware of stray animals
- Immediately quarantine infected animals or humans.
- Wash hands regularly
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