From: Paul Osuyi, Asaba
An unnamed community in Delta senatorial district is presently at loggerheads with the state government over the transfer of a suspected monkey pox patient to a health facility in the community.
Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr. Nicholas Azinge, who disclosed this to journalists, in Asaba, the state capital, during a press conference on the outbreak of monkey pox in the state, said there was already apprehension in the community which he deliberately refused to name on grounds of confidentiality.
Azinge said he received a letter from the community development union, accusing him of deliberate plans to wipe out human existence from the community by transferring the suspected monkey pox case to the area.
“We are already having problems from communities. I got a letter from one of the communities in Delta central that I brought monkey pox to kill them.
“I can understand their apprehension, the disease may not kill but the physical appearance of the patient is very scary. Even doctors are scared to administer treatment on suspected cases.
“But we have been to the community to see the suspected monkey pox patient, and he is doing well. Those of us who went to see the patient are doing well, we don’t have any rash,” he said.
Azinge explained that monkey pox is a self limiting disease, urging residents not be worried as the death rate as a result of monkey pox disease is much lower than that of Lassa Fever and Ebola.
He said only three suspected cases have so far been reported in the state which include a single man and a couple, noting that the samples of the suspected cases have been taken to Dakar, Senegal for laboratory analysis.
Azinge added that the suspected cases were under close observation and were responding positively to treatment, and that it is only the result from the laboratory analysis, which is being expected, that can confirm if the patients actually contracted the disease.
“What we are treating is a high level of suspicion. There are stages of the disease and we treat these stages of manifestation of symptoms. The disease can only be determined when we get the result of the analysis from Dakar. The samples have been sent,” Azinge stressed.
The commissioner also clarified that the disease is not a sexually transmitted, adding however that because of the closeness and intimacy during intercourse, “if there is any secretion from the nose or even the region, there are chances that it can be transmitted from an infected patient to the uninfected.”
