The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday confirmed five new cases of monkey pox in Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and two other states. While Lagos recorded three cases, Rivers and Akwa Ibom had one each.

The latest situation report on monkey pox published by the NCDC said: “In the reporting month (September 2019), 15 new suspected monkey pox cases were reported from five states, Lagos (five), Rivers (two), Akwa Ibom (three), Zamfara (one), Delta (one), Imo (two) and the FCT (one).

“Five of the 15 suspected cases were confirmed positive for monkey pox in three states. Five of the suspected cases tested positive for chickenpox while others are for further evaluation. No death was recorded in the reporting month.”

The NCDC said a total of 81 suspected cases have been reported so far in 2019 out of which 39 confirmed cases were recorded in nine states namely Bayelsa, Lagos, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Anambra, Cross River and Oyo.

The centre noted that of the confirmed cases, 59 percent was from two states, Delta (28 percent) and Lagos (26 percent) while the most affected age group was 21-40 years, with 84.6 percent of confirmed cases having a male-to-female ratio of 2.6:1.

The NCDC report said since the beginning of the outbreak in September 2017, 176 confirmed cases and nine deaths have been recorded in 18 states.