The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has assured Nigerians that the country is not under serious threat for now amid viral spread of Human Metapneumo Virus.
INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that HMPV, a respiratory virus, can cause illnesses ranging from mild cold-like symptoms to severe respiratory infections, particularly in young children, older adults, and individuals with weakened immune systems.
Speaking on Channels TV, during an interview on Thursday morning, NCDC’ Director General, Dr Jide Idris, noted that the agency is in a monitoring and alert phase.
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He said: “Let me say, there’s no serious threat for now. That’s one. Two, this HMPV virus, it’s not a new virus. It’s just that it’s not well-known.
“But it’s been implicated in many respiratory infections over the years, over the countries, especially in children, and elderly people.
“Just like the normal flu, old virus or influenza, respiratory virus, it’s just one of those causes of respiratory problems.
“We are in a monitoring and alert phase, and that’s why again we take instructions from WHO globally because every country is supposed to report cases like this, any case; any problem to WHO, those things that they consider might become global problems later so that they can alert every other country to get prepared.
“That’s precisely what we are doing in Nigeria. We’ve experienced some major problems, we had Ebola, and we had COVID.
“With those two, we developed some capabilities. We learned our lessons and put infrastructures in place. So we’ve got public health infrastructures.
“These are things you need to put in place in expectation of things like this so that you don’t have to start running helter-skelter.”
via: Information Nigeria
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