By Boris Esono Nwenfor
BUEA, May 26, 2023 – The South West Region has recorded ten (10) new cases of monkeypox, an endemic disease in West and Central Africa, according to public health officials in the region. The new cases have been detected in Foe Bakundu and Kumba Health districts, says Dr Eko Eko Filbert, South West Region Delegate of Public Health.
This is the second time that these two health districts are experiencing monkeypox in the last seven (7) months. In October 2022, two cases of the monkeypox virus were confirmed in Foe Bakundu and Kumba Health districts.
With more than 16,000 cases reported in 75 countries worldwide since the beginning of May 2022, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom, declared the multi-country monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
The first case of this virus in Cameroon was identified on May 14 2018 and since then the infectious virus has been on a hike spreading into other parts of the South West region. This reemerging zoonosis is coming at a time when the battle against Cholera is ongoing in the country.
"It is just simple hygiene which includes washing of hands, distancing from infected individuals,” Dr Eko Eko Filbert, South West Region Delegate of Public Health said last year. “This will go a long way to prevent the spread of monkeypox knowing that it is a disease that comes from animals especially from monkeys so the population should avoid eating raw meat specifically from the bush. Because such meat will only increase the spread of the epidemic."
"We will continue with advocacy as we are deploying these teams to the ground with all these means of logistics not living out the participation of stakeholders such that we appropriately and adequately fight this epidemic and prevent this disease from spreading in a wide range,” He explained.
Since 2022, over 20 cases of the monkeypox virus have been detected in Cameroon with the reemerging disease caused by infections from animals. The disease primarily affects people close to tropical rainforests in central and west Africa. But it has recently been reported in urban areas. Monkeypox is transmitted by animals said to be susceptible to the virus. The animals include rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, non-human primates and other species.
Monkeypox virus as research provides is a rare disease which can easily be contaminated in most of West Africa. The infectious disease renders infected patients sick for two to four weeks as it cripples the body.
What is Monkeypox?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines monkeypox as "a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe."
The disease primarily affects people close to tropical rainforests in central and west Africa. But it has recently been reported in urban areas. Monkeypox is transmitted by animals said to be susceptible to the virus. The animals include rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, non-human primates and other species.
According to WHO, human monkeypox was identified for the first time in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a 9-month-old boy in a region where smallpox had been eliminated in 1968. Since 1970, human cases of monkeypox have been reported in 11 African countries: Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and South Sudan. In 2003, there was a monkeypox outbreak in the US; the first time it was reported out of Africa.