The Gombe State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, alongside the state Epidemiologist, Nuhu Bile, has confirmed the state has joined 26 other states of the federation with incidence of monkeypox.
Briefing journalists at the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, the commissioner disclosed that out of 19 suspected cases in Gombe, no less than three persons have been confirmed to have monkeypox.
Dahiru, who doubles as the state incident manager revealed that the state opted for testing with Polymerase Chain Reaction, which is the World Health Organisation’s approved method in order to ascertain the actual position of patients.
According to him, no death has been recorded, stressing that recovery was between three to four weeks period.
The health commissioner said, “We have 19 cases in the state, samples were collected from all the suspected cases and three returned positive for monkeypox virus.
These cases presented with fever lasting for more than one week despite treatment for common causes of fever, they developed rashes on the face and other parts of their body which prompted the suspicion of monkeypox. Samples were taken and sent to the laboratory for testing and they returned positive for monkeypox virus.”
While declaring the outbreak of monkeypox, Dahiru noted that he had activated the Incident Management System with full responsibility for surveillance.
Members of the public are advised to imbibe good personal and environmental hygiene and to report suspected cases to the nearest health facility.
“Be rest assured that the government is doing all it can to protect its people from this and any other outbreak,” the commissioner said.