Maputo health authorities in readiness after mpox declared a global health emergency

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Maputo health authorities in readiness after mpox declared a global health emergency

4:03 CAT | 16 Aug 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Maputo is the country’s main entry and exit point

Health authorities in the city of Maputo are already taking a stance following the declaration of a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Councillor for Health and Quality of Life, Alice de Abreu, explained that the situation is nothing new, saying it is simply a matter of ensuring that teams are ready to respond if necessary.

READ: WHO declares mpox a global public health emergency – Watch

“We have had this alert before, and the sector has shown itself to be organized for this purpose. It will simply be a matter of activating our teams, following guidance from the Ministry of Health, and being ready for what we do as the city of Maputo. We already have surveillance teams ready and prepared, and they are the ones who help us identify suspected cases,” she noted.

De Abreu appealed to the population to adopt social distancing measures, stressing that preventive behaviour can help the city face this challenge.

“If we maintain social distancing, if we wash our hands properly, disinfect them, if we use masks, and go to health facilities, we believe that all these measures will allow the city of Maputo to once again be able to respond adequately to this challenge,” Abreu stated.

Maputo is Mozambique’s main entry and exit point .To date, health authorities have not yet reported any cases of mpox.

READ: China to screen arrivals for mpox as Pakistan reports first case of deadly virus

On Wednesday, 14 August, the World Health Organisation declared Mpox a global health emergency. Since January 2022, a total of 38,465 cases have been recorded in 16 African countries, causing more than 1,400 deaths. According to the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there was a 160% increase in cases recorded in 2024 compared to the previous year. The continent is facing the spread of a new strain, detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo in September 2023 and called “Clade Ib”, which is more deadly and more contagious than the previous ones.

Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970, in what is now the DR Congo (formerly Zaire), with the spread of the Clade I subtype (of which the new variant is a mutation), which has since been mainly confined to countries in West and Central Africa, where patients are usually infected by animals carrying the virus.

In 2022, a global epidemic, transmitted by the Clade 2 subtype, spread to around 100 countries where the disease was not endemic. In July 2022, the WHO declared maximum alert for this outbreak of cases worldwide, and lifted it less than a year later, in May 2023. The epidemic has caused around 140 deaths in a total of about 90,000 cases.

Source: RFI