 Welcome back it's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa as the world continues to battle the COVID-19 and many countries are looking for ways to recover from the pandemic. A new virus is making headlines worldwide. We're talking about monkeypox. Monkeypox is a rare disease that is caused by infection with monkeypox. Virus is now thought to be nearing 100 cases in 12 countries around the world and more expected as severance is stepped up. In the first case of this current outbreak was detected in the United Kingdom on May 7 and so far infections have been confirmed in the in nine European countries at the UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands as well as Italy and Sweden. We also have the United States and Canada as well as Australia detecting cases of this virus. Now although the first case detected in the United Kingdom was linked believe it or not to travel to Nigeria report which reports about 3,000 monkeypox cases a year according to what we have learned. Subsequent cases have not been tracked to Africa and this according to report is puzzling many scientists and doctors. What do we need to know about the virus? We're glad to have one of such scientists and doctors a doctor joining us this morning on breakfast. Dr. Tunji Meba Wondo. Thank you very much for your time and thanks for joining us. So is this a surprise to you the way the virus monkeypox virus is spreading around the world when we hear it's akin to it's usually found in Western Central Africa. We see in European countries in UK in Canada in Australia and they're saying that the other cases cannot be linked to travel to Nigeria or Africa. Well it's a study in evolution it's a curious surprise in a way because the standard teaching the standard knowledge about monkeypox is that you see it jumps from animal to human then from human to human it must have the first contact either with the animal or with human. We always see recently in the past few weeks we've seen more than 16 cases in up to different countries or 16 countries among that are there about you know and interestingly we are seeing them in countries with no contact with West Africa the origin of monkeypox. Then the question is that how is this being transmitted now and we're seeing them especially among the gay people and the men having sex with men so that is the predominant population where we're seeing them. So is it now certainly transmitted disease or is it because of intimacy during those people that caused the spread of the monkeypox. Sweden is showing cases of monkeypox in the first time, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, a lot of countries so it's curious. So we need to actually interrogate it and we're seeing close tasks in the real part of the world. You cannot link that of USA to that of UK. Yes, that of Nigeria, that of UK can link to Nigeria, that of Canada can link to Nigeria, but that of Sweden and you cannot link to Nigeria or link to any West Africa countries where this is endemic. So we are going to see more of these viruses or germs jumping from animals or the white to humans because climate change and then the fact that we're also encroaching on their natural domains. We are carrying animals, we are cutting down grasses, cutting down bushes and all those things. So we are going to see more increase and then the better prepared we are for this, you know, the better for us in a way. Nigeria, of course, since 2017, we've seen one of 500 cases of monkeypox diagnosed. This year alone, we've seen as much as 50, you know, from January to now. So it's something we should take seriously because these virus evolve, they change their shape, they change their form and we don't want a virus that then mutates and then give us another problem. But for monkeypox, we shouldn't attend the fear we had with COVID that it might lead to a lockdown. No, it's most unlikely to lead to a lockdown. It's a different DNA virus and then similar to smallpox, they don't have the kind of aggression of smallpox. So then at the same time, we have to also be vigilant and ensure that this thing doesn't get this far for what that does. All right, Dr. Tui, you know, Dr. Tui, I apologize for the alien mixup. All right, so quickly, let's get to the fundamental, let's understand what we need to know about monkeypox because you talked about, you know, those gay men and all of that and attracted it. But what is monkeypox and how, you know, is it gotten because we also know that it feels like it's an African situation. That's a stereotype with it. But we'd like to hear from you as an expert. In 1958, a Danish man was doing an experiment in Diakongo and then saw the outbreak of thispox in a laboratory animal. It wasn't until 1970 that we witnessed the first case in human when a child was attacked. So it's actually a DNA virus, you know, and it's similar to smallpox virus. And then the normal reservoir of this virus are generally rodents and monkeys, but because of human contact, it jumps to human. When it jumps to human incubation period, you know, it does not usually exit 21 days. In fact, few days or weeks. And then what happened is that it starts with fever, headaches or throat, intense body pain and tiredness, extreme tiredness. And a few days after rashes will appear, usually around the face, the rashes then spread down onto the trunk. And then the rashes have peculiar characteristics, initially flat, become raised, it has water inside, it forms pus and then bursts and then from crusts. And then interestingly, people who are in close contact with themselves are actually likely to transmit this virus from one person to another. So you have to have adverse body fluid, close contact, keep distance with people. The disease is usually very mild, especially the West African clade, because there's a go-go clade, which is even more severe. The West African clade is actually mild, one in ten fatalities, but when it affects children, pregnant two men, and people that are immunocompromised, then it becomes a problem. So that's the general knowledge about it. So of course, what are we supposed to do? We still have to come back to the protocol of the preventive mechanism, some gaps, avoid contact with the wild animals as much as possible, if you have rashes. Contact, wild animals, contact, eating them, or their body fluid, or if somebody is sick and has rashes, also give gaps, wash your hands as we used to preach during the COVID, and keep some distance, inform doctors when you have reasons to suspect anything that is wrong with you. So these are just the basic things. Now, we're looking at vaccines against it, but even Nigeria is not having a COVID vaccine. We do not have a Mockypox vaccine. Of course, it's the smallpox vaccine that's still a bit effective against it. So the best we can do is to stay with that implicit of saying, how do we prevent Mockypox? How do we identify? How do we increase surveillance? We have to increase the knowledge. That's where we are for now. Well, the official government reports. First, you have said that we need to get to the non-pharmaceutical methods of washing your hands, respecting social distancing, but you've also mentioned the fact that there's a tendency that it might be you had said that it might just be an intact cause. It might be sexually transmitted. I really don't know where all of that is. But there's a school of thought that's saying that the official government reports that suggest authorities are using Mockypox to cover up the COVID-19 vaccine that could have actually caused the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. What do you make of this? Well, if you look at the number of COVID-19 vaccines... And that's why you have it in Sweden. Because you've mentioned that you understand that it's in the UK, the United States, but in other countries you don't understand. And people are saying that it might just be the vaccine. You see, we cannot be subjecting ourselves to speculations that are not scientific. Philosophy comes in different forms. And the fact that association is not the same thing as causation. Science is a strict thinking methodology that we're used to interrogating. Now, if you look at it, you deploy how many COVID-19 vaccines, billions of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, billions. And that worldwide, I think it's the stink cases of Mockypox. Stink cases are there, but... Let's say 500 cases worldwide. And you have deployed billions of these vaccines, of COVID-19 vaccines. How do you now account that you're having just small cases of Mockypox after giving a large number of COVID-19 vaccines? They don't correlate. And then look at it. Even the one in Canada, we can have a trace. Even the new one in May 7th in the UK came to Nigeria, where Mockypox is endemic. I think we should just contain those kind of fallacies until we have really proof that there's a linkage. It's 12 countries, because you are also worried about these statistics. We're looking at 12 countries. Let me tell you, diseases don't read books. Let's get it. Diseases don't read books. This is because you say, I appear here, I appear here. I become like this. Books don't read diseases. When we find new patterns, we ask questions, we look through it. Could there be any other means of these things? Was this thing actually in that society, you know, subdued, running, and then we're having little heartbreak with that? Because people are not actually looking for Mockypox when they are doing checking in that society. Could it be such that it's really running in the community and then we're having little heartbreak? Could they have brought that one from some country far in the past? And then now, is it that the new virus has mutated a new medicine for mutating to give this kind of symptom? There are a lot of questions to us. I cannot do conjecture. I feel that because we've seen it in 16 countries, this number of 100 cases is also there. But that means that COVID vaccine is related to it. There's been a lot of fallacies already COVID vaccine that it's been difficult, very difficult. It's really with the social media, very difficult to let people flow with the main thinking. Scientific thinking is not an easy thinking process. Right, so you're saying that, you know, we don't know what this is, the original Mockypox virus strain that we're used to or this is something new. We have to wait. We know that it is actually the West Africa type. Okay. How did you get there? That's the question. Why are we seeing it for the first time in a space like Sweden or Belgium or Switzerland? There's no link to Africa. We can establish a link to Africa now. Could it have been that the virus became quiet inside somebody's body and they broke us now? Why are we seeing it more in men having sex with men or gay, homosexual? Why are we seeing it more in them? These are interrogations. In reality, when HIV first came, that was how it broke. You see it more. In fact, it became an issue of stigma. And then we have to be very careful not to stigmatize those people because we observe that kind of thing. It could actually be because they are also very thorough in trying to look after their health. So now all the facts you put on the table where you have to put the pieces together and you don't put the pieces together by conjectures, by pushing fallacy, by looking at, you know, as a source of concession. So we need to be a bit careful and wait for the further scientific evidence that will help us unravel why this is. But while we're waiting for that, we have to increase our surveillance. We have to watch our hands. We have to do social distances. We have to really, really, you know, raise our nutrition and eat very well. That is where we are. To increase your range. Yes, and then, of course, think about the climate. If you mess up climate, you mess us up. And that's why we see a lot of diseases being thrown at us randomly because nobody respects the environment again. We just think that we can do anything. So, I mean, it comes from serious deep conversation about interaction between health environment and the connection of humanity, especially in this area of high mobility. That's true here. But for someone who talked about the symptoms, you know, because, of course, awareness for the public is important. This is where we have 3,000 cases a year. And it's not something that causes panic in Nigeria. I mean, I didn't even know we had 3,000 cases a year. But it's an issue. It's a pressing issue. And this is another opportunity from the public. So, when you realize you have some of these symptoms, so anyone who sees that he has the headache you talked about and all that, can you please go over the symptoms again? And what anyone who shows such symptoms is expected to do? Where should they go? What should they do first before they even get to where they should go to? Well, simply put, all varieties, this is what we call constitutional symptoms. You know, you have headache, sore throat, body ache, intense weakness. These are some of the things that you see. Until the rash appears, you would think it's just malaria or anything. So, we tend to gloss over a lot of symptoms because it feels like malaria. Because it feels like it's malaria and then we then use anti-malaria drug. But again, once you are using anti-malaria drug, you are not seeing the recusite response. Please. And then again, normally adults, you are supposed to even do a malaria test before you start using the malaria medication. So, once you are using that, and then suddenly you find a rash appearing on the, usually on the face first. Then the rash will flat initially. There's water inside it. It becomes sparse. It breaks and they form crust and fell off. So, the rash will not spread centrally. It goes from faces down to the other end. So, when you start noticing 1, 2, 3, 4 rashes in any part of your body that is swirling up like that to the water inside, and you are having fever, headache, and extreme tiredness, it becomes important for you to seek the assistant of a doctor or, you know, a health people. And then who can then be able to take and decide what to do? And of course, unfortunately, there's no definitive care for, for Mockypox. We still have to rely on treating the constitutional symptoms, what we call systematic treatment. And after that, you know, if there are vaccines available, you give the vaccine as a material, they are available. But of course, they may not be available. And then the cheapest thing still for us is to prevent, is to prevent. You are doing a lot of awareness now. You are telling people, people should try to listen. It can be, there's no money for a dead person, okay? There's no political post for a dead person. Health has been subjected to, has been pushed to the periphery in the thinking of Nigerians. There is a really, really big issue. Health issues had closed down the economy. Health issues had led to the fall of government. Even in their holy books, health issues led to the fall of government in Egypt. So we need to put some attention to health in this part of the world. And unfortunately, we are challenged with human resources for health. No doctors, no nurses. Lab is not there. And we just, down on the grace of it, it is where it is where it is where. Well, it's going to be well. It's going to be well, but, well, except when it gets to the grave. So honestly, that is the thing. Be observant. Love your body. Do what you call embodiment. Feel your body and say, how am I feeling today? What could be wrong with me? And then have a phone, a number of a medical head, a person that you can call. Of course, in a country like this now, which is actually in a chaos. You know, the country is in a chaos. Everything is just. That is why in a chaos, everything is normal. Everything is abnormal. Because there are no rules. There are no other. Anything you do is okay in a chaos. So Nigeria, you know, has not really escaped the beginning that there was chaos in the Bible. We have not escaped the beginning. So that's why you see that you see everything happening nobody, no direction. And when there's no direction, this is also manifest itself and everything we call. So let us focus and be able to talk seriously about what is important in our health. Well, quickly, as well, as we just tried to move away from this conversation now, we know that there's chicken pox and some of these similarities that you have mentioned, you know, with monkey pox, it feels like the same thing with chicken pox. And for those also persons who have acne, at what point do you now differentiate the difference between acne and chicken pox? Very interesting. Yeah, that's a very important question. Most of the time, don't try to act like a doctor by going to online and try to read things about how it must be this or that. I remember what we call the medical studious syndrome. Those days in medicine, when we enter clinic, I had the teachers about one thing. They say, ah, that is what is wrong with me. But what happens with this, with the rashes of the chicken pox is that, of the monkey pox is that one, is bigger. And it progressed, and it's bigger from flat, waist, water inside, pulse inside, breaks, you know. And then it spreads centrally from head down to the abdomen and then it goes to the arms. But in reality, in small pox, the rashes are smaller. They are smaller and they have a peculiar characteristic in between them, you know, in between those, when you look in between those rashes, there are clear characteristics of the chicken. Is this what you've always seen on the screen? This is a monkey pox now. Okay. You can see that it's bigger. You know, the space between them is actually a bit, you know, wider. But in small pox, the spaces are actually compacted and they're smaller. And then they don't commonly form those kind of crust that we've seen. So the chicken pox can even form more crust in a way and destroy the skin. But what is important is that the structure can already be made by a health practitioner. You can't stay here, I'm telling you, you can't stay here and do the difference because it is there where you are taught the tiny details of what is a chicken pox, what is a small pox and what monkey pox look like. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Tui, a member I won't do. It's quite interesting hearing from you. A bit worrying hearing that one in 10 persons die, like you said, from a monkey pox. But we're grateful for the information. I think for me, I want to take away from what you said is we need to be very careful, continue to practice the safe measures that we had with COVID will still help us with this. And also work on boosting immunity because if you are immunodeficient, it's a term you use, then that's one of the ways you can be susceptible to this virus. There are a lot of diseases. A lot of diseases. All right. Thank you very much for your time and that's so much you can take on this segment of the breakfast. We'll be back and when we return, we'll look at the monetary policy committee increasing the NPR to 13 percent first time in some years. This has been packed up. What's going on? Stay with us.