Benue is recording suspected cases of Monkey Pox: Be careful.

Monkey pox is in town.(Benue State) Care about your movements and even associates.
Prevention is better than cure.

How Mokeypox Spreads (Transmission) Animals to Humans:

1. Infection of index cases results from direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected animals.
2. Through the handling of infected monkeys, Gambian giant rats and squirrels, with rodents being the major reservoir of the virus.
3. Eating inadequately cooked meat of infected animals is a possible risk factor.

How Mokeypox Spreads(Transmission) 

Human to Humans:

1. Close contact with infected respiratory tract secretions, skin lesions of an infected person.
2. Close contact with objects recently contaminated by patient fluids or lesion materials.
3. Transmission can occur by inoculation or via the placenta (congenital monkeypox).
4. Transmission occurs primarily via droplet respiratory particles usually requiring prolonged face-to-face contact, which puts household members of active cases at greater risk of infection.

Signs & Symptoms:

Early stage symptoms include swelling of lymph nodes, muscle pain, headache, fever, prior to the emergence of the rash.

The interval from infection to onset of symptoms of Monkeypox is usually from 6 to 16 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.

• the invasion period (0-5 days) characterized by fever, intense headache, lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph node), back pain, myalgia (muscle ache) and an intense asthenia (lack of energy);
• the skin eruption period (within 1-3 days after appearance of fever) where the various stages of the rash appears, often beginning on the face and then spreading elsewhere on the body. The face (in 95% of cases), and palms of the hands and soles of the feet (75%) are most affected. Evolution of the rash from maculopapules (lesions with a flat bases) to vesicles (small fluid-filled blisters), pustules, followed by crusts occurs in approximately 10 days. Three weeks might be necessary before the complete disappearance of the crusts.

Some patients develop severe lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes) before the appearance of the rash, which is a distinctive feature of Monkeypox compared to other similar diseases.

Monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting from 14 to 21 days. Severe cases occur more commonly among children and are related to the extent of virus exposure, patient health status and severity of complications.

Preventive Measures:

1. Raising awareness of the risk factors and educating people about the measures they can take to reduce exposure to the virus.
2. Surveillance measures and rapid identification of new cases is critical for outbreak containment.
3. During human monkeypox outbreaks, close contact with other patients is the most significant risk factor for monkeypox virus infection.
4. Potentially infected cases should be isolated from others and placed into immediate quarantine.
5. Avoid contact with animals that could harbour the virus (including animals that are sick or that have been found dead in areas where the disease occurs).
6. Avoid contact with any material, such as bedding, that has been in contact with a sick animal and solate infected patients from others who could be at risk of infection.
7. Properly cook bush meat before consumption.