THE World Health Organisation (WHO) last week declared Mpox as a public health emergency of international concern due to an upsurge in the cases of the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries.
“The emergence of a new clade of Mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other Mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it is clear that a co-ordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
WHO’s declaration on Wednesday last week came a day after the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) declared Mpox a public health emergency of continental security, seen as a key step to strengthen the collective and co-ordinated response to the outbreak across the continent.
The declaration by WHO and Africa CDC has triggered responses in Europe and Asia as countries are now placed on high alert amid an increase in new cases and deaths on the continent due to Mpox.
According to Africa CDC 17 541 Mpox cases, including 517 deaths, have so far been reported in 12 African countries this year.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has reported 16 789 cases (14 151 suspected and 2 638 confirmed) including 511 deaths. The case fatality ratio is 3%.
Confirmed cases have been recorded in central, east and southern Africa.
The outbreak of Mpox comes more than a year after WHO declared the end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency. COVID-19 claimed about 7 million lives, leaving the health system, especially in Africa, on edge.
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Some economies are yet to recover from the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns.
There is no doubt that another pandemic will reverse the recovery that had been registered post-COVID-19.
For countries in southern Africa such as Zimbabwe, another pandemic will leave their economies on the brink as they are battling the effects of the El Niño-induced drought which left more than half of the population staring starvation and requiring food assistance.
What is now needed is to scale up surveillance and report any cases of Mpox once they are detected which puts citizens on high alert.
The burden now falls on government agencies and officials at ports of entry and those with decision-making capacity to take proactive and necessary steps to ensure the virus does not make its way into the country.
African countries such as Zimbabwe cannot afford travel curbs as they are still to recover from the effects of COVID-19 which negatively impacted the tourism industry.
Early detection and reporting of the cases will be key to containing Mpox.
Africa CDC said the rapid increase in cases in several African countries indicated a growing emergency that could overwhelm fragile health systems.
It said Mpox had a significant impact on health systems and its spread could burden stressed health systems dealing with other epidemics or pandemics.
The declaration, Africa CDC said, would help to secure the necessary resources to prevent a reduction in the capacity of these systems to respond effectively to other health emergencies.
This will help to combat stigma and misinformation by facilitating clear and consistent communication across the continent, it said.
For Zimbabwe, the work begins now to scale up surveillance and strengthen our teams at the ports of entry.
