‘Nigeria Has More Cases Of Monkeypox Than Other African Countries’ – WHO

'Nigeria Has More Cases Of Monkeypox Than Other African Countries' - WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that half of the deaths recorded from monkeypox in 2022 across Africa are from Nigeria.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said at a virtual media briefing on Friday that there have been 524 confirmed cases and 12 deaths across 11 African countries.

“The majority of cases are in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana.

“Of the 12 deaths, six occurred in Nigeria, four in Ghana, and two in the Central African Republic,” she said.

“Although no single monkeypox vaccine has been administered to any high-risk group in any of the African countries reporting cases, WHO has provided 39,000 test kits to countries, enabling improved testing rates.”

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), there have been 220 cases of monkeypox in Nigeria since January 2022, with four deaths, as of August 14.

Meanwhile, according to the most recent WHO monkeypox situation report, 52,996 laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox and 18 deaths were reported from 102 countries across all six WHO regions between January 1 and September 4, 2022.

“As of 4 September, the ten countries that have reported the highest cumulative number of cases globally are the United States of America (19,351), Spain (6,645), Brazil (5,197), France (3,646), Germany (3,493), the United Kingdom (3,413), Peru (1,546), Canada (n = 1289), the Netherlands (n = 1,172), Portugal (871). Together, these countries account for 88.0% of the cases reported globally,” the report reads.

“The outbreak continues to affect primarily young men, with 98.2% of cases with available data being men with a median age of 36 years.”

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