Monkey pox: Kaduna pilgrims warned against unnecessary travel

The 2022 Hajj pilgrims from Kaduna State have been warned against unnecessary travels or hospital visits to people with skin and respiratory tract infection in order to avoid contacting the Money Pox disease.

The Chairman of the Kaduna State Hajj medical team, Dr. Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, who stated this after an interactive session with a team of public health experts from the state’s Ministry of Health, noted that though Kaduna was free from the disease, the Saudi Embassy had mandated all pilgrims from Nigeria to be screened for the disease.

“We want all our pilgrims to remain where they are, and to stop unnecessary travelling or unnecessary visit to sick patients, especially those with contagious diseases such as skin rashes or cough and other forms of respiratory tract infection, because those are some of the symptoms of monkey pox infection. If there is a contact between individuals and an infected person, the disease can spread,” he said.   

According to him, pilgrims with specific symptoms will be directed to the Public Health Department and if confirmed positive, the pilgrim will likely be isolated.

“If at the end of the day a pilgrim is confirmed positive, he may not be allowed to go for Hajj or may be isolated for a period of time because the infection is actually a self-limiting infection. So, maybe after isolation and the patient passes the stage of infecting others, he may be allowed to go later, depending on the time frame,” he said.