Mpox, others: ECOWAS health agency strengthens surveillance

The West African Health Organisation (WAHO) has strengthened surveillance and measures against the spread of mpox disease.

The organisation under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has also raised alarm over the continued spread of the disease even as it warned against the consumption of bushmeat.

The WAHO Technical Advisor on Cross-Border Surveillance and Workshop Capacity Development, Dr Aisha Usman spoke with newsmen on the sidelines of the National One Health Surveillance And Information Sharing Operational Tool (SIS-OT), Operational Workshop held in Lagos.

The four-day workshop is being attended by stakeholders from the National Centre For Disease Control (NCDC); the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security; Environment, among other agencies.

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Usman who spoke on the outbreak of mpox stated that the organisation had strengthened cross-border surveillance while at the same time engaged in information sharing with relevant stakeholders to stop cross-border transit of the disease.

According to her, while the disease has been confirmed in four countries, it has been endemic in Nigeria since 2022.

“For the West African regions, we have four countries that have confirmed cases of monkeypox including Nigeria but Nigeria specifically, we can say that mpox is endemic here because we have been reporting cases since 2022. I believe the NCDC are on top of the situation, they have an emergency guide and management and a series of training that have been conducted.

She advised that since mpox is spread from animals to humans, human to human and animal to animal, it is important for people to avoid the consumption of bush meat.

What we are doing here today is to strengthen surveillance because when we talk of surveillance, it means information sharing group that we will be using especially when we have an outbreak like this or in preparation before having any outbreak or epidemic.”

She advised that since Mpox is spread through animals to humans, human to human and animal to animal, it is important for people to avoid the consumption of bush meat.

“Currently, the source is unknown and we know that it’s caused by monkey or M Pox virus and most of this have been attributed to animals especially Monkeys, Chimpanzees and so on and there can be animals to human transmission, human to human and animal to animal transmission but the real source is still unknown based on literature.

“What we will tell people is to be careful (with bush meat) even though the meat will be cooked and virus can die but in the handling and killing, people get infected and that’s where we need to be careful to avoid animal to human transmission,” she warned.

Dr. Yashe Usman of the NCDC stated that surveillance is the backbone of disease control, saying to do this stakeholders must share information to detect and respond to any disease outbreak.

“No one should die from contracting any disease and the essence of the workshop is to have a safer and healthier Nigeria for us all and everyone must contribute to what will benefit us as a country. Disease surveillance is very key because it is what will help us and enable us to detect early in order to respond promptly,” he stated.

Assistant Director, Pollution Control and Environment, Ministry of Environment, Gbetsere Aghogho, stated that sharing the right information is imperative to prevent and control outbreak of disease in the country and other countries.