Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has doused the fear on the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV), saying it doesn’t pose any threat to Nigerians.
The NCDC Director-General Jide Idris, who allayed the fears of Nigerians, said that the virus is not a new one.
Truth Live News Media reports that Idris said this while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
The NCDC boss added that HMPV is behind respiratory issues but is not well known.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he said on the breakfast show.
“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,” Idris said.