A case of monkeypox has been recorded at Tiga General Hospital in Bebeji Local Government Area of Kano State.
Reliable hospital sources told DAILY NIGERIAN that the patient, who is from Nasarawan Kuki village, absconded from the hospital on Wednesday night after being diagnosed of the disease.
“He was quarantined here in order to avoid spreading disease, but he absconded from the hospital last night.
“We informed the authorities but no one made any effort to trace the whereabouts about the patient to avoid spreading the disease in Kano,” said a source who preferred anonymity.
The state commissioner for Health, Kabiru Getso, could not be reached for comment as at the time of filing in this report.
Last week, the commissioner told journalists that the state government had designated a special hospital for monkeypox patients in case of any outbreak of the disease in the state.
On September 22, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, received a report of a suspected Monkey pox virus disease from the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, NDUTH, Okolobiri, Bayelsa State.
Forty three cases have so far been recorded in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ekiti, Lagos, Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers, and FCT.
Experts say the disease is transmitted through direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected animals like Monkeys, Gambian giant rats, squirrels and rodents.
Another possible risk factor is eating inadequately cooked meat of infected animals, while human to human transmission occurs from contact with body fluids, secretions or skin lesions of an infected person or objects recently contaminated by patient fluids or lesion materials.
