By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africa has reported two additional laboratory-confirmed Mpox cases this week despite heightened public awareness and intensive contact tracing efforts to control the spread of the disease.
This brings the total number of infections to 22 since the first case was reported in May this year, while the death toll remains at three.
Department of Health spokesperson, Foster Mohale, says the two cases were reported in Durban and Nquthu in KwaZulu-Natal.
“The latest cases include a 40-year-old man diagnosed at a private health facility in Durban on Saturday last week. The patient is from Johannesburg but travelled to Durban over the past weekend where mpox-like rash developed.
“The other case is a 26-year-old man from Nquthu in KwaZulu-Natal who presented with mpox-like rash to a local hospital. Both new cases self-identified as MSM with no international, but local travel history.”
Mohale says everyone who experiences any of the mpox symptoms with or without international travel history, is urged to present themselves to a health facility for clinical observation and confine themselves to one place until their test results are available.
“Contact tracing and monitoring is ongoing in both provinces, especially amongst the close contacts of the patients.
“We urge all the identified and suspected contacts to cooperate with health officials during contact tracing for screening and possible diagnosis to prevent further transmission of this preventable and treatable disease,” added Mohale.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the DRC, with the spread of the Clade I subtype, since mainly limited to certain West and Central African nations, with people mainly catching it from infected animals, such as when eating bushmeat.
Then in May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men. That was the Clade II subtype.
Since last September though, a new, deadlier Clade I strain has been spreading in the DRC, which is sexually transmitted also among heterosexuals, with the outbreak beginning among sex workers.
Testing revealed it was a mutated variant of Clade I, called Clade Ib.
The global mpox outbreak two years ago led the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern, the highest alarm it can sound, in July 2022.
Meanwhile the WHO warned Thursday that mpox remains a global health threat, voicing particular concern at a swelling outbreak of a new deadlier strain of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The World Health Organization said it had received reports of cases from 26 countries in the past month alone.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, “remains a global health threat”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing.
He highlighted that South Africa had recently reported 22 cases, including three deaths — “the first cases in the country since 2022”.
None of those cases had a history of international travel, he said, “suggesting that the confirmed cases are a small proportion of all cases, and that community transmission is ongoing”.
Of particular concern was the situation in the DR Congo, where a new strain of the virus has been spreading since last September.
That outbreak “shows no sign of slowing”, Tedros said, pointing out that 11,000 cases had been reported this year, including 445 deaths, with children most affected.