Current Issues on Monkeypox Disease in Nigeria

Abstract

Monkeypox (MPXV) is a viral infectious disease, capable of transmitting from animals to humans. It is a zoonotic virus responsible for causing the disease, and belongs to the same family (orthopoxvirus) as the smallpox virus. The first case of human monkeypox infection was recorded in 1970 in a town called Basankusu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There have also been reports of the disease outbreak across West Africa. The first recorded monkeypox case outside Africa was in 2003 in the United States of America, which later developed to 70 cases without any mortality recorded. In Nigeria, the spread of monkeypox has been reported across the South-East and South-South regions of the country and disease has since been recorded in states such as Akwa Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The monkeypox virus has been identified as a double-stranded DNA virus belonging to the genus Orthopoxvirus, of the family, Poxviridae with accompanying symptoms such as fever, severe headache, chills, swelling of the lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy), back and muscle aches (myalgia), and exhaustions (asthenia) and eventually the appearance of rashes which develops through various stages before eventually falling off as the patients recovers and wounds heals. Animal-human Zoonotic transmission occurs through direct contact with the biological materials from infected host animal such as blood, mucosal lesions, bodily fluids, or cutaneous, through broken skin, mucous membranes, or respiratory airways of the nose, eyes, or the mouth, while human-to-human infection occurs through direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids, of an infected person. It also spreads through secretion from the respiratory tract through prolonged face to face or intimate contact with an infected person, contact with contaminated surfaces from infected host, or to a fetus via the placenta, or close contact with infected mother (congenital monkeypox). It can be diagnosed through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratory testing in combination with gene sequencing, and the infected patient treated using tecovirimat specific for smallpox virus, while studies are ongoing to develop its particular medication. This study is aimed at discussing the current issues on monkeypox virus with respect to the Nigerian society.