Bayelsa State health authorities have urged residents of the state not to panic, following an outbreak of the monkey pox epidemic in the state, as the government is effectively collaborating with the World Health Organisation and the National Centre for Disease Control, to check the spread of the
disease.
Bayelsa’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, who made the appeal, said victims had been properly quarantined in an isolated centre at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital in Okolobiri, and were being appropriately monitored.
He added that the health authorities had embarked on a statewide sensitisation campaign on the disease.
According to him, the virus was first seen in monkeys, but could also be found in all bush animals such as rats, squirrels and antelopes. He added that the secretions from dead animals are also highly contagious.
The commissioner listed some of the symptoms of monkey pox as severe headache, fever and back pain, and that most worrisome of all the signs were rashes bigger than those caused by chicken pox.
He assured that there was no reason for residents of Bayelsa State to panic.
“Individuals, especially those handling living or dead animals, are advised to observe the simple hygiene of washing their hands with water and hand sanitizer,” Etebu counselled.
Complementing him, the Chief Press Secretary to the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Francis Ottah Agbo, in a statement, said people must be on the alert for signs and symptoms of the outbreak, and must report any sick feeling to health institutions.
