Nigeria reports first death from monkeypox in 2022 as confirmed cases soar to 21

Nigeria on Sunday recorded its first death from monkeypox in 2022 as the cumulative count of cases in the nation soared to 21. The cases were confirmed from nine states, including the federal capital territory, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) stated. The deceased was identified as a 40-year-old who had underlying morbidity and was on immunosuppressive medications. However, the NDCD in a statement added that there is no "evidence of any new unusual transmission of the virus, not changed in its clinical manifestation."

The 21 confirmed cases were reported from Adamawa (5), Lagos (4), Bayelsa (2), Delta (2), Cross River (2), the FCT (2), Imo (1), and Rivers (1). "Genomic surveillance is ongoing at NCDC’s National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and so far all of the cases have been confirmed to be caused by West Africa clade Monkeypox virus," the statement read. Apart from the confirmed infections, NCDC alerted about 66 suspected cases in Nigeria. The last monkeypox case in the African nation was recorded in 2019.

What is monkeypox?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus. It is commonly found in Central western Africa amid densely populated tropical rainforests. The virus can spread from animal to human as well as transmit from human to human. Symptoms of monkeypox are typically fever, intense headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, and rash or lesions on the skin that last for 2-4 weeks, WHO said.

Monkeypox could be 'peak of the iceberg', warns WHO

Monkeypox virus has been confirmed in 23 non-endemic countries with 257 laboratory-confirmed cases and 120 suspected cases, said the World Health Organization (WHO) in its latest update on Sunday, adding that the outbreak currently poses a moderate risk to global public health. In a statement, the United Nations (UN) health body said that the unprecedented appearance of the monkeypox virus in several nations where it is not normally found indicates undetected transmission for quite some time. According to WHO, the recent events of amplification of the virus came after it spread without being discovered.