In the Democratic Republic of Congo, nine people have died of monkeypox this year while Nigeria has just reported its first death out of six reported cases. So far, there are 465 cases of the illness in Congo, according to Dr. Aime Alongo, chief of Congo’s Sankuru health division.
Monkeypox Has Resulted in 9 Deaths in Congo, Nigeria Reports First Death of 2022
The official points to the preparation and consumption of bushmeat—monkeys, rodents, bats, marsupials, reptiles, and so on—that can be found in the wild. Bushmeat constitutes a significant source of protein for poor people and those living in rural parts of West and Central Africa.
Bushmeat has also been linked to the spread of Ebola and HIV. In explaining how this comes about, Dr. Alongo said:
“The residents enter the forest, pick up the corpses of monkeys, bats and rodents which are the reservoirs of monkeypox.”
On May 29, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced its first death from the disease. The victim was “a 40-year-old patient who had underlying co-morbidity and was on immunosuppressive medications.”
So far, Nigeria has 21 confirmed cases and 45 cases that are being observed. The last time the country saw an outbreak was in the fall of 2017. From that outbreak to the present, there have been 247 confirmed cases with a 3.6-percent death rate.
With other countries being cautious about monkeypox spreading and becoming a major issue, no deaths from the disease have been reported outside of west and central Africa at the moment.
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