Nigeria identified its first monkeypox case in 30 years in 2017.

Since September 2017, Nigeria has been encountering the biggest monkeypox flare-up. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has revealed an total of 466 suspected monkeypox cases from 30 states. 

Of this, 205 have been affirmed in 18 states. 

During the initial a half year of 2021, Nigeria has seen 13 affirmed monkeypox cases from five states Delta (3), Bayelsa (2), Lagos (4), Edo (1), Rivers (3). No deaths reported so far. 

8 cases were reported in 2020.

The NCDC Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, spoke in Abuja on Tuesday after the agency had registered 59 suspected cases of monkeypox, with 15 confirmed. 

After a Nigerian national arriving in the USA tested positive, Dallas County Judge, Clay Jenkins, assured that: “While rare, this case is not a reason for alarm and we do not expect any threat to the general public,” Jenkins, said in a statement by Dallas County’s health department.

With the continued wearing of masks aboard flights and in the airport it the risk of spreading monkey pox via respiratory droplets are low.

Ihekweazu further stated that an outbreak would only be declared if there is a large enough cluster of reported cases constituting an emergency. t

Monkeypox, an uncommon zoonosis that happens irregularly in forested spaces of Central and West Africa, is an orthopoxvirus that can cause lethal ailment. The illness manifests symptoms like human smallpox (eradicated since 1980), though human monkeypox is less severe. The infection is self-limiting with symptoms ordinarily subsiding within 14–21 days. Treatment is supportive. The infection is communicated through direct contact with blood, organic liquids and cutaneous/mucosal sores of a tainted creatures (rodents, squirrels, monkeys, dormice, striped mice, chimpanzees among others rodents) Secondary human-to-human transmission is limitedd yet can happen by means of openness to respiratory drops, contact with contaminated people or  materials.