The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Professor Chikere Princewill, has denied the state’s involvement in the outbreak of the Monkey Pox disease.
This is coming shortly after the reported cases of the disease in the media where all three cases were discovered in Obio Akpor Local Government of the state – at Rumoulumeni, Eneka, and Psychiatric Road.
But speaking through the telephone on Channels Television’s State of the Nation, the commissioner said, “First of all, we don’t have any proved case in Port Harcourt. The suspected case we have was the case of a secondarily infected heat rash.
“The two cases we had have been ruled out. The state government is at alert because of the closeness and proximity of Bayelsa to Rivers.”
He further boasted that his team has been stationed at all entry and exit points of the state, with the reactivation of the Rapid Response to check its spread.
“Our surveillance group are at alert at all the entry and exit point of Port Harcourt, from the East-West axis and the Aba road area because of the incidence in Bayelsa.
“And then we have already reactivated our Rapid Response Team to be at alert and then our other teams are supposed to volunteer have also been contacted, they are all on the ground. The surveillance has been moving around. We have been educating the public on what is going on,” he explained.
The commissioner thereafter advised residents of the state not to panic as the government is doing the needful to salvage the situation.
He says, “We are also telling the public not to panic because it has not really come into Rivers state as now. The Teaching Hospital Activation has also been prepared and then the isolation centres in Rivers state, the one used for Ebola and Lassa fever, have also been activated. So all our rapid response teams are all intact.”
The Monkeypox disease first saw its way in Nigeria following its first reported case in Bayelsa state on Thursday that 13 persons have been infected with the viral disease while 49 others who met the affected persons were being observed.
The State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Ebitimitula Etebu, had while confirming the development to Channels Television, advised residents of the state not to panic as the disease was being properly controlled.
However, it is a long new twist in Rivers State barely 24 hours after hitting Bayelsa state, when the viral disease was reportedly said to have affected a 13-year-old who was earlier taken to a traditional medicine man for treatment.