LAGOS: Nigeria has recorded 39 cases of mpox since the beginning of the year, a health official said as concern mounts over the global spread of the disease.
The cases were across the country and have not been fatal, according to Jide Idris, the director-general of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“A total of 39 confirmed cases out of 788 suspected cases and no deaths have been recorded,” Idris told reporters on Thursday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) this week declared the rapid spread of a new more dangerous mpox strain, Clade 1b, a public health emergency of international concern — the highest alarm it can sound.
So far Nigeria has only seen cases of a milder strain, Odianosen Ehiakhamen, who heads Nigeria’s mpox technical working group, told a local broadcaster on Thursday.
Nigeria saw its first mpox case in 1971 and has confirmed cases every year since 2017, Ehiakhamen said.
The WHO declared the mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency on Wednesday.
Sweden, the following day, announced the first case outside Africa of the more dangerous variant of mpox.
The UN health agency was concerned by the rise in cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where at least 548 people have died this year.
Previously unaffected countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have reported outbreaks, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, but it can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said on Thursday that Nigeria now requires all travelers to complete an online health form before arrival to curb the spread.
Nigeria records 39 mpox cases this year
https://arab.news/2mkgq
Nigeria records 39 mpox cases this year
- The cases were across the country and have not been fatal
- Nigeria saw its first mpox case in 1971 and has confirmed cases every year since 2017
French police raid home of culture minister in graft probe
- Raid comes as Rachida Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
- Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling
PARIS: French police on Thursday searched the homes of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as the ministry and the Paris town hall she presides over, as part of a corruption probe, prosecutors said.
The police raid comes as Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
Dati, 60, has been accused of accepting nearly 300,000 euros ($343,000) in undeclared payments from major energy group GDF Suez while a member of the European parliament between 2010 and 2011. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The national financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday said the raids came after it had opened an investigation on October 14 into Dati over possible corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling.
Accusations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez first emerged in French media reports in 2013 and the European parliament’s ethics committee questioned her.
French investigative television show “Complement d’Enquete” and the Nouvel Observateur magazine renewed the allegations in June.
Dati wants to become the French capital’s second woman mayor in a row in the March 2026 municipal vote.
She hopes to replace Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, 66, who is to step down after two terms in the post.
