Eniola Akinkuotu, AbujaThe Federal Ministry of Health says all the Monkey Pox test samples obtained from Lagos tested negative .

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole , said this during a press conference in Abuja on Monday .

He said only three cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Nigeria.

Adewole said , “ As of October 13, 2017, there were 17 SUSPECTED cases reported from Yenagoa LGA in Bayelsa State.

“ We have received laboratory confirmation for Monkeypox virus from three of these cases from the WHO Regional Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal . Samples from 12 other cases from Bayelsa were negative .

“ With these results , four suspected Monkeypox outbreak in Yenagoa have been confirmed with laboratory evidence. The most likely source of infection is a primary zoonotic transmission , from an animal , with secondary person – to – person transmission .

“ Since our initial announcement, a total of 43 other SUSPECTED cases have been reported from eight other States ( Akwa Ibom , Cross River, Ekiti, Lagos , Enugu , Nasarawa , Rivers , and FCT). Of these, four cases from Lagos have also been tested and confirmed to be negative for the Monkeypox virus.

“ We expect that many of these cases being reported from other states in Nigeria are not caused by the Monkeypox virus , but we will continue to investigate all those cases that fit the case definition .

“ Further laboratory tests using whole genome sequencing are being carried out by the Africa Centre for Genomics and Infectious Diseases in Redeemers University Ede , Ogun State. ”

Punchng