MONKEYPOX SCARE: SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE OF NIGERIA BESIEGED BY PANICKY PARENTS.

Monkeypox infection.

In Rivers State Nigeria this morning, schools were seen besieged by panicky parents scampering to withdraw their children over a rumour that was rife that Nigerian Soldiers were going from school to school injecting school children with the dreaded Monkeypox virus.

   Both primary and secondary schools witnessed an influx of parents and guardians who seemed so apprehensive and jittery about their children being injected with the Monkeypox virus.

    Sequel to this unfounded rumour, all public and some private schools in Alakahia, Diobu, Rumuosi, Igwuruta, Rumuomasi Woji, were empty as parents and guardians trooped in to withdraw their children and wards from schools.

   The Deputy Director Army Public Relations, 6 Division, Colonel Aminu Iliyasu said that the rumour were a mere fallacy, though, the Army planned a medical outreach as part of their contribution to the society but it has really not commenced.

   Contributing to the uncertainty that has eveloped the state, the commissioner for Education, Tamunosisi Gogo-jaja over the radio Frequency Modulation 92.3 in Port Harcourt appealed to parents and guardians to remain calm and not to panick because it is a mere rumour.

  He however, advised parents and guardians not to withraw their children from schools again because no immunization is going on by the Nigerian Army and moreover, such activity cannot take place without the permission of the state government.