A 40-year-old patient on admission at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, has tested positive to the Monkeypox virus even as the hospital has shut down its orthopaedics unit.

The unnamed patient was said to be a road traffic accident victim who has been on admission in the Bola Tinubu, BT, Orthopaedics ward of the hospital since 26th of June, 2022.

Vanguard gathered that the patient developed a facial rash that was similar to one of the symptoms of Monkeypox.

As part of maintaining high index of suspicion, the hospital obtained samples from the patient for investigation for Monkeypox and varicella on the 22nd of July, 2022.

The outcome of result on the 27th of July, 2022, was positive for Monkeypox.

Further, it was gathered that the patient had contact with family members and the hospital’s medical staff in the Orthopaedic ward.

As a result, admission of patients has been suspended into the unit.

Sources who spoke with Vanguard said even patients with broken bones and already billed for surgery were turned back and referred to other hospitals including the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos, and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idiaraba, Lagos,

According to the sources, doctors and other medical officers that participated in the surgery of the patient are under have been placed under observation.

The patient has since been moved out of the hospital while forms have been given to the doctors and other health workers affected to fill on daily basis as regarding symptoms they may be observing while under observation.

The incubation period for Monkeypox virus lasts between seven to 17 days.

“The ward affected has been shut down and fumigated. The doctors, nurses and other health workers that were involved in the surgery of the patient have been placed under observation,” one of the sources stated.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on its website, from January 1 to July 24, 2022, Lagos recorded 17 Monkeypox cases and one death. Since the re-emergence of Monkeypox in September 2017 to July 24, 2022, a total of 47 cases and three deaths have been recorded in Lagos, the NCDC noted.