Rivers confirms two cases of Mpox, health authorities on high alert

The Rivers State Government has confirmed two cases of the potentially deadly Mpox infection.

This announcement was made by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Oreh, during a news conference held in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

Dr. Oreh stated that the state’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre has been placed on high alert to respond swiftly to any further emergencies related to the outbreak.

“Recently, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control stated that there are 39 confirmed cases of Mpox across the country.

“Out of this number, Rivers State has two confirmed cases of Mpox.

“We have deployed our medical teams to respond to all emergencies at the healthcare level, general and specialist hospitals,” she said.

According to her, the state government had put in place an incident plan for Mpox, as well as mobilized resources to find all the incidents of Mpox cases across the state.

She further stated the ministry had engaged and trained ad hoc staff to monitor and effectively combat the infection.

“The ad hoc staff now can respond to this infection at all levels of our healthcare pillar,” she said.

News360 Nigeria reports that Mpox is an illness caused by the monkeypox virus that is spread between people mainly through close contact, which can occasionally spread from the environment to people via things and surfaces that have been touched by a person with the disease.