In Nigeria, we don’t know how much of the disease we have, because surveillance is not what it should be. We are missing many of the monkeypox cases in the rural areas.
The surveillance of diseases in Nigeria was affected by the COVID pandemic. The over-concentration and shift of resources to respond to COVID and the fear of contracting COVID in health facilities contributed to the low numbers reported from 2020 to 2021 for a host of diseases, including yellow fever and measles.
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Dr.Connie Says: We need to anticipate what is going to happen and prepare. We know that someone from the UK was infected with monkeypox through contact with a Nigerian, while in Nigeria. We should conduct contact tracing to determine if there are more cases. Isolate the case, and do contact tracing. Vaccinate around the case and contacts.