Following the outbreak of monkeypox, the Federal Government has said it has tightened surveillance at the airports and borders to check travellers, especially those coming from Europe and other countries where the outbreaks have been reported.

Addressing journalists on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister of Agriculture and Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar said that the Federal government has set up an inter- Ministerial Committee to fast track collaboration to prevent the entrance and spread.

He said the government was raising its game with necessary prevention measures, to avoid the kind of emergency that arose with the advent of COVID-19 across the globe.

The Minister also warned that livestock farmers, hunters and other stakeholders should handle animals carefully, especially the ones that have symptoms of sickness.

According to him, “the outbreaks have been reported in Europe and the Americas. Since the 13th of May 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported to WHO from 12 member states that are not endemic to the monkeypox virus across WHO regions including Australia.

“The general public is hereby advised to avoid contact with animals that could harbour the virus including animals that are sick or found dead where monkeypox occurs; avoid contact with any material such as bedding that has been in contact with a sick animal; practice good hand hygiene such as the washing of hands and the use of alcohol-based sanitisers after contact with infected animals or humans,” he added.

Dr Abubakar explained that “Epidemiological investigations so far revealed travel links to endemic areas as the cause of the outbreaks. Monkeypox is a zoonotic infectious disease which was first detected in 1958 in monkeys, rodents are now seen as possible means of transmission of the disease to man and animals. Monkeypox is primarily a disease of non-human primates like Chimpanzees.

“It is a self-limiting disease with symptoms of bump rashes in humans which is usually mild and lasts between 2-4 weeks with a three to six per cent fatality rate.

“The disease is transmitted through close contact with an infected person or animal and material contaminated with the virus. The main means of transmission is usually spillover from animals; man to man transmission is less common. The disease clinically resembles smallpox.

“Some identified risk factors include hunting, illegal trade in wildlife handling of wildlife in wildlife markets,” he added.

He said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working in collaboration with relevant sectors and stakeholders to intensify surveillance in the animal population and at the point of entry for wildlife as well as creating awareness among hunting communities and the general public on the prevention of the disease.

“The general public is hereby advised to avoid contact with animals that could harbour the virus including animals that are sick or found dead where monkeypox occurs; avoid contact with any material such as bedding that has been in contact with a sick animal; practice good hand hygiene such as the washing of hands and the use of alcohol-based sanitisers after contact with infected animals or humans,” he noted. (Nigerian Tribune)

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