Kengasian, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa
Following the emergence of the British and South African variants of the Chinese communist virus, another variant of the virus has been discovered in Nigeria, and there has been a surge in confirmed cases in that country.
The new variant was found in two patient samples in Nigeria in early August and early October, and is of a different order than the first variant found in Kent, England, on Sept. 20. John Nkengasong, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa, said the variant found in Nigeria is in a different category than those found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, but they need to study more samples. In the past week, the number of new confirmed cases in Nigeria has increased by 52 percent.
Kengasian said there is no evidence that the increase in confirmed cases in Nigeria is related to the variant virus, but he also pointed out that Nigeria does not monitor the number of virus genes as much as the United Kingdom.
Kengasian said Nigeria’s agency responsible for the study of Wuhan pneumonia virus, only just announced the genetic sequencing of the variant virus. He said: “Give us more time… It’s still very early in the process (of studying variant viruses).” The Nigerian CDC did not comment on Kengasian’s remarks.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a population of more than 200 million. As of Wednesday, the country had accumulated more than 80,000 confirmed cases. Given the surge in confirmed cases in South Africa and Nigeria, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held an emergency meeting this week to discuss the response.
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