Mozambique: Mpox control post installed on Malawi border

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Mozambique: Mpox control post installed on Malawi border

4:15 CAT | 29 Aug 2024

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

The health authorities in Zambezia, in the centre of Mozambique, have set up a health checkpoint on the border with Malawi to prevent possible cases of mpox in the country.

“We have a checkpoint here on the border, and we have preventive medicine technicians there. At the checkpoint, everyone crossing the border must wash their hands, and prevention messages are transmitted to everyone entering and leaving,” said the director of the District Health, Women and Social Action Services of Milange district, Claudina Ponda, quoted by Radio Mozambique today.

The Mozambican official mentioned the “extensive and open” border with Malawi as one of the risk factors that led to the team being set up at the Melosa border post.

READ: Malawi begins screening for mpox at all points of entry

The Mozambican Ministry of Health announced on Monday that Mozambique still has no positive cases of mpox, after seven suspected cases of the disease tested between 14 and 26 August returned negative results.

The Ministry of Health recalled that on 14 August the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ and that, as a result, the Mozambican health authorities raised the alert level of surveillance throughout the country.

The Mozambican National Institute of Health (INS) also told Lusa on Monday that it is at “maximum laboratory readiness” to test suspected cases of mpox in the country, believing that it can respond to “any demand”.

“In terms of testing, we are at maximum laboratory readiness. We have the capacity to increase our capacity and our dynamics, if necessary, but the number of suspected cases [is] still low, it does not seem that in the short term this is of concern,” said INS national director Eduardo Samo Gudo.

Malawi had not registered any cases of mpox up until August 24, according to a statement from the country’s Ministry of Health, which however admitted that the country was at “great risk”.

“The Ministry of Health continues to remind the public that Malawi is at great risk of contracting the disease, as it is a global threat. The ministry is working in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the Africa CDC [Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention] and all partners to prevent the disease in the country,” the statement from the Malawian authorities reads.

More than 22,800 cases and at least 622 deaths from mpox have been registered in 13 African countries since January, the African Union confirmed on Tuesday.

This is the second time in two years that the infectious disease has been considered a potential threat to international health, with the first alert being raised in May after the spread had been contained and the situation was considered under control.

Source: Lusa