THE NATIONAL PUBLIC Health Institute of Liberia dubbed NPHIL, a health prone surveillance entity that got its prominence during the 2014 devastating Ebola pandemic outbreak has updated Liberians on the outbreak of MPOX, another life threatening disease in the country.
AT A WEEKEND press conference held in Monrovia, NPHIL Director General, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, a renowned Liberian scientist, confirmed four active MPOX cases in the country, naming Montserrado, Margibi and Sinoe Counties where the new infections have emerged.
THE UPDATE FROM NPHIL made it emphatically clear, that between January 1, 2024 to May 11, 2025, a total of 652 samples of MPOX cases were reported nationwide, which 572 samples were tested with 78 confirmed positive across 14 of the 15 sub-political divisions of the country.
HOWEVER, THE GOOD news to highlight is NPHIL has assured that the outbreak remains under control as 77 of the 78 patients tested positive have recovered, an indication that Liberia’s health surveillance and preparedness in combating diseases stand reliability.
THOUGH WE ARE not health practitioners or scientists, the description of the symptoms of MPOX; most likely points to the mutation of small pox and other existing human and animal internal and external diseases that produce rash and sore.
IT IS NO illusion that contracting MPOX comes through having handshakes, sharing bed or inhaling contaminated breath from infected persons, a signification that the disease is contagious to spread amongst people once its outbreak emerges.
WE WISH TO encourage the government through NPHIL to continuously do the needful by discouraging stigma while ensuring transparency in every aspect of the fight and showcasing prevention by making available vaccination campaign to avoid fatalities we witnessed and suffered in the cases of EBOLA and COVID-19 in the Sirleaf and Weah regimes.
ON TOP OF our quest, let border surveillance remains vigilant, bearing in mind what transpired during the EBOLA outbreak in March 2014 when the devastating pandemic infiltrated Liberia from neighboring Guinea via Lofa County and spread throughout Liberia like wild fire.
𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐢 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 O𝐧 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬