Nine people this year have died of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), while Nigeria has recorded its first death of the year from the disease, the countries’ health authorities said, even as at least 20 countries continue to grapple with sudden outbreaks not seen in years.
Aime Alongo, head of the Sankuru Health Division in the DR Congo, on Monday said that 465 cases of the disease have been confirmed in the nation, making it one of the worst-hit in west and central Africa, where the disease is endemic.
The persistence of the disease in the DR Congo is due to the consumption of dead monkeys and rodents, Alongo said.
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“The residents enter the forest and pick up the corpses of monkeys, bats and rodents, which are the reservoirs of monkeypox,” Alongo added, urging those with monkeypox symptoms to visit a health center to isolate themselves.
Nigeria recorded its first death from monkeypox this year in a patient with underlying medical conditions, the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.
The center said that this year, it has confirmed 21 out of 66 suspected cases of the disease, which is also endemic in Nigeria.
“The death was reported in a 40-year-old patient who had underlying comorbidity and was on immunosuppressive medications,” the center said.
Nigeria has not had an outbreak of monkeypox since September 2017, but it continues to report sporadic cases.
At least 247 cases have been confirmed in 22 of its 36 states since 2017, with a 3.6 percent fatality rate, the center added.
A spike in monkeypox cases reported in Europe and the US has generated concern among those countries — many of them had not recorded a single case of the disease in years.
More than 250 monkeypox cases have been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks, the WHO said, adding that the disease has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa.
One of the new cases in the UK was a man days after his arrival from Nigeria on May 4. Nigeria has recorded six confirmed cases of the disease since the British citizen left the country.
Ifedayo Adetifa, head of the center, told reporters there was no indication that the British citizen contracted the disease in Nigeria, and that the country remains prepared to respond to an outbreak.
“The biggest challenge that you have with a disease such as monkeypox is that it is uncommon and the perceived risk by the population about how dangerous this condition is has been very low. That is why ... we have conducted awareness training and advocacy training to increase the level of awareness of healthcare workers,” Adetifa said.
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