Anambra State Laboratory To Be Built To Diagnose Monkeypox, Other Contagious Diseases

The Anambra State Government has stated that a laboratory is being established to diagnose cases of monkeypox and other contagious diseases in the state.

Afam Obidike, the Commissioner for Health, spoke to journalists and told them that the establishment of the laboratory would shorten the time that it would take for the investigation of disease outbreaks.

According to Mr. Obidike, both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) were assisting the state in activating the laboratory.

He said that the laboratory was to be situated at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka.

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He also stated that when the laboratory is completed, it will diagnose diseases like monkeypox, measles and Lassa fever and shorten the time of getting results for the investigations.

The commissioner mentioned that it was unfortunate that NCDC’s national reference laboratory in Abuja was the only facility in Nigeria that had the capacity to diagnose monkeypox cases.

“So far, we have recorded three suspected cases of Monkeypox detected by our disease surveillance units in the local government areas. We are able to detect the first case, and in conjunction with WHO, it was confirmed. For the second case, the result is not out, while we are yet to get the sample of the third case across to the lab in Abuja.”

The commissioner also added that the ministry had begun contact tracing for all of the recorded monkeypox cases so as to contain the spread of the disease.