The Federal Government has called on the infectious disease research centre at Redeemer’s University, Ede in Osun, to diagnose the root cause of the outbreak of Monkeypox disease in the country
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adebowale, made the call on Wednesday in Ede at the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious disease (ACEHID) based in the university.
The minister, who was represented by Osun Commissioner for Innovative Technology and Science, Mr Oluremi Omowaye, stressed the need for surveillance network in order to diagnose and check the spread of Monkeypox.
The minister thanked the Osun Government for the relentless efforts towards ensuring that the Monkeypox is put to check.
Omowaye also said that the state government had set up quarantine facilities to prevent infection and urged citizens to report early symptoms of any strange disease.
He said that awareness campaign would be taken to schools, religious organizations, market places villages and towns .
He applauded Redeemer’s University for its intellectual preparedness towards ensuring that the disease was put to check.
The ACEGID team leader, Prof. Christian Happi, tolld reporters that the centre was working in collaboration with the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) to ascertain the cause of Monkeypox in the country.
Happi said blood samples had been received from Bayelsa , Lagos and Ekiti states which would be diagnosed and analyzed in the laboratory and results released within the next few days.
He said, the results would show if the epidemic was monkeypox or existing virus which needed to be addressed urgently.
Happi urged the Federal Government to take the result from the institute as primary while that of Dakar in Senegal as Secondary.
“We learnt samples have been taken to Dakar, Senegal for analysis and results forwarded but that would be secondary.
“We trained the researchers in Senegal tactically in this genomic research whenever they come to Redeemer University.
“Our own results would be out within the next few days and that will be primary,” he said.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Debo Adeyewa, praised the Federal Government for giving adequate attention to the university due to its intellectual properties and technical know how.
Adeyewa, who was represented by the Chief Librarian, Dr Adebayo Adebayo, said the research centre had the contact tracing mechanism to get the realities of Monkeypox.
(NAN)
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