By Rita Chioma,

A new deadly viral epidemic known as “monkeypox” has broke out in Bayelsa State.

A medical doctor and 10 other persons who came down with the monkey pox have been quarantined in an isolation centre created at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) Oloibiri.

The isolation centre was reportedly created by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the epidemiological team of the state’s Ministry of Health to stop the spread of the disease.

It was learnt that the NCDC and the epidemiological team were tracking 49 other victims, who had come in contact with the infected persons.

The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, who confirmed the development, said samples of the virus, had been sent to the World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory in Dakar, Senegal, for confirmation.

He described monkey pox as a viral disease caused by a group of viruses that include chicken pox and small pox, adding that the first case was noticed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and subsequently had outbreaks in West Africa.

Saying the virus has the Central African and the West African types, the commissioner said the West African type is milder and has no records of mortality.

Etebu added: “The source is usually all animals. It was first seen in monkeys and that is why it is called monkey pox. But every bush animals like rats, squirrels, antelopes are involved. So, the secretions from particularly dead animals are highly contagious.”

The commissioner listed the symptoms of monkey pox as severe headache, fever and back pain amongst others, adding that most worrisome of all the signs were rashes bigger than those caused by chicken pox.