The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it has observed a slight increase in Monkeypox cases in the country.
The Director General of NCDC, Ifedayo Adetifa, said this on Tuesday during a virtual media dialogue on monkeypox.
He warned that if the current trajectory continued or was sustained, Nigeria might match or exceed the peak number of cases seen in 2017 when monkeypox re-emerged.
Adetifa said since January 1, several countries had been affected by an unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox, leading to over 3,000 laboratory-confirmed and one death from the virus as of June 22.
He added that prevailing media perception and misinformation on monkeypox had fueled false narratives about the disease, and that the potential risk of discrimination and stigmatization from this requires urgent social and behavior change intervention.
The latest situation report on monkeypox shows that there are 62 confirmed cases, 204 suspected cases and one death so far from the disease since the beginning of the year.
