The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has declared that the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) is not a new virus, only that it is not well-kown.
The NCDC Director-General, Jide Idris, also assured that there is no serious threat of HMPV in Nigeria for now, adding that there is n cause for alarm.
According to him, Nigeria is on high alert monitoring the situation and no single case of HMPV has been recorded in the country.
Henzodaily reports Idris gave the update on Thursday while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“Let me say, what, 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,” he said.
The NCDC boss disclosed that Nigeria is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) in monitoring the situation which has become a global concern.
He assured that Nigeria is adequately prepared.
“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,” he said.
On how to prevent the virus, the NCDC DG listed avoiding overcrowded places, washing hands, and others as part of measures against the HMPV.