The commissioner told the journalists  at Public Health Emergency Operations Centre that no less than three people in Gombe out of 19 suspected cases have been positively identified as having monkeypox.

The World Health Organization-approved Polymerase Chain Reaction test was chosen by the state to determine the actual position of patients, according to Dahiru, who also serves as the incident manager for the state.

According to him, no death has been recorded, stressing that recovery was between three to four weeks period.

The health commissioner said, “We have 19 cases in the state, samples were collected from all the suspected cases and three returned positive for monkeypox virus.

“These cases presented with fever lasting for more than one week despite treatment for common causes of fever, they developed rashes on the face and other parts of their body which prompted the suspicion of monkeypox. Samples were taken and sent to the laboratory for testing and they returned positive for monkeypox virus.”

While declaring the outbreak of monkeypox, Dahiru noted that he had activated the Incident Management System with full responsibility for surveillance.

“Members of the public are advised to imbibe good personal and environmental hygiene and to report suspected cases to the nearest health facility.

“Be rest assured that the government is doing all it can to protect its people from this and any other outbreak,” the commissioner said.