The government of Cross River has discovered two new cases of mpox in Calabar Municipality, raising the number identified in the council to five.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Ekpo Bassey, disclosed this during an interview with journalists on Friday in Calabar.

Mpox, a zoonotic disease, is an emerging infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, most commonly rodents and can spread from person to person.

The special adviser, the incident manager of the Cross River mpox response team, said the state surveillance team discovered the cases on Monday, October 21, and samples were sent to National Reference Hospital, Abuja.

According to him, the results were received on Thursday, October 24, confirming the cases and other pillars responded immediately to manage the cases accordingly.

“Right now, both cases are stable, and we are monitoring them closely. We are also trying to carry out our sensitisation and infection control to prevent the disease from spreading.

“The two new cases were from a boy of about 18 in the University of Calabar (UniCal); the other was a baby around the Ikot Ekpo area, although the parents did not have the symptoms. So, we are trying to find out how it happened.

“Before now, we have had three cases in Calabar Municipality; we have done contact tracing, and we are monitoring all the persons who had contact with the cases,” he said.

He noted that while the cases were being managed, they needed to wait for 21 days because the infection incubation period was between 21 and 25 days.

Mr Bassey advised the state residents to avoid eating not properly cooked bush meat, maintain high personal hygiene, and open their ears to various enlightenment campaigns carried out by the government to curb the spread of the disease.

The state government, in partnership with the National Mpox Response Team, had visited traditional rulers in Calabar to enlighten them and their subjects on the issue.

(NAN)