Global and Local Upsurge in Monkey pox Epidemic: Current Trends, Challenges and Future Prospects

Amidst global relaxation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) intervention measures and celebration of the unprecedented grounds conquered in the fight against the pandemic, the monkeypox virus (MPXV) has emerged and remerged in many countries taking over major headlines around the globe at the present. Since 1 January and as of 22 June 2022, 50 nations and territories in five WHO Regions (Africa, America, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, and Western Pacific) have reported 3413 laboratory-confirmed cases; along with one fatality. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) received notice of a possible monkeypox epidemic in Bayelsa State on September 22, 2017. Thereafter, from Bayelsa to Rivers, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Ogun and Cross River, the scourge of Monkeypox has continue to escalate five (5) years after the disease was first reported in Nigeria. An aggregate of 716 suspected cases have been recorded from 25 states nationwide between September 2017 and June 26, 2022. There have been 288 (40.2 percent) confirmed cases from 25 states out of the 716 suspected cases. So far, nine (9) deaths in total (CFR=3.1%) have been reported in 6 states between September 2017 and June 2022. At the moment, the following challenges are preventing the country from containing the virus effectively: 1) Low patient use of healthcare facilities because of stigma, cost, and low fatality rate; 2) Underreporting of cases due to inadequate access to healthcare facilities; 3) Low sample collection rate in reporting states; 4) Poor infectious disease laboratories support in remote areas; 5) Corruption and lack of political will by current administration to fight the virus; 6) Weak monkeypox monitoring, possibly related to a limited health workforce and the COVID 19 pandemic response; 7) A lack of international cooperation, unity, and coordination in the pursuit of establishing global health equity; and 8) Lack of access to authorized and safe treatment and vaccine among other things. Despite these challenges, a monkeypox-free Nigeria is possible. To this end, a safe and effective immunization of the public, as with smallpox, polio and yellow fever, is the key to the future. Until, a safe and effective vaccine becomes readily available, control and prevention lies largely on non-pharmaceutical intervention measures.