The Bayelsa State Government has said the state has recorded 13 confirmed cases of monkeypox disease.

The development came on Thursday at a time the Ogun State Government also confirmed four new cases of the disease.

The Director of Public Health in the Bayelsa State Ministry of Health, Dr Jones Stow, who disclosed this, said the confirmed cases were among the 50 samples that were sent for laboratory test.

Stow said the state government had mobilised medical surveillance teams to carry out active search in order to mitigate the spread of the infection.

He said, “In Bayelsa, we have confirmed 13 cases (of monkeypox) from 50 samples sent. We have sent our surveillance teams down to places to do what we call active search; moving from household to household and asking to know if somebody in the household has come down with these skin rashes.

“They are also to see how we can quickly handle it, and if possible, if the cases are bad, we move them to our isolation facility.

“We have also set up a coordinating mechanism titled, the Public Health Emergency Centre for Monkeypox, where we meet almost on a daily basis to discuss the issues. We have started doing a lot of training among our healthcare workers, even amongst our surveillance teams.”

In Ogun State, the Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Festus Soyinka, confirmed the four new cases in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Soyinka disclosed that two cases were recorded at Ota, in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government, and one each in Abeokuta North and Abeokuta South Local Government Areas.

He said the latest figure increased confirmed cases in the state to seven.

The commissioner added that the Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers in the local governments had carried out line listing and contact tracing of the patients, who he said were on medication at an undisclosed hospital.”

“LGA DSNOs have carried out line listing and contact tracing.  DSNOs reported that the patients are on medication prescribed for them in the hospital,” he said.