The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC),   says there are  1,180 suspected cases of monkeypox in the country

The country also recorded 482 cases and seven deaths resulting from monkeypox in 2022.

These were made known in Abuja by the Director-General of NCDC,   Ifedayo Adetifa at a bi-weekly ministerial media conference anchored by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire.

Adetifa said the NCDC had developed a treatment regime which could entail the option of having antiviral treatment for those at the highest risk of having severe complications, hospitalisation and death.

“People with immunosuppression fall in that category. People who have dual infection with chickenpox or monkeypox at the same time fall in that category.

“We want to be able to reduce the sufferings in patients and the death rate while working on an integrated, one health approach to bring monkeypox under control,’’ he said.

Adetifa also told the conference that Nigeria had so far recorded 933 confirmed cases of Lassa fever in 2022, which was about two and a half times higher than the number of cases recorded in 2021.

He said there had been 173 Lassa fever deaths in 25 states and 102 local governments with 71 per cent of the deaths recorded in Ondo, Edo and Bauchi states.

“We continue to respond by providing treatment and infection prevention, as there are larger regional or international activities in terms of preparing for vaccine trials.

“Early phase of vaccine trial for Lassa fever has started in Liberia and there had been efforts to look at clinical drug development pathways.

“These are all in a bid to ensure that we reduce fatality which stands at two digits now, to hopefully a single digit,’’ he said.

The NCDC director-general also said that there had been 18,000 confirmed cases of measles in Nigeria and 234 resultant deaths in 2022.

He noted that while the outbreak of measles was not as highly-reported as it was the case with other ailments, it was an ailment that was the cause of significant suffering and death in children.

He said children under the age of five years were particularly at risk and that at the moment 40 local government areas had active cases.

Adetifa stressed that the centre had continued to encourage parents to vaccinate children against measles to bring it under control.