THE Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) has raised concern that Zimbabwe may not be prepared to contain the Mpox outbreak, which has wreaked havoc on some parts of the continent, because of the country’s shambolic medical system.
Mpox, which was previously known as monkeypox, was detected in neighbouring South Africa.
Approximately 20 000 people travel between Zimbabwe and South Africa daily, with many being informal traders using public transport, heightening the risk of cross-border transmission.
Last week, authorities issued a public warning following the outbreak of the disease widely reported in central and west Africa.
CWGH director Itai Rusike told NewsDay that Zimbabwe can struggle to keep the disease at bay considering the fragility of its healthcare system.
“Our concern remains in the lack of basics to address the disease outbreak in that the health delivery system remains in limbo,” he said.
“This means that infected persons will not receive the required medical care as this remains largely unavailable at most health institutions, the health workers remain inadequate for routine health services, let alone the required cadres to cope with surges in patient numbers.”
With Zimbabwe still reeling from the catastrophic impact of COVID-19, Rusike added, the southern African country could potentially buckle in the face of another devastating disease outbreak.
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“The persisting fragility of health service delivery despite the lessons learned from COVID-19 points to the reality that it is a system that will not survive another shock in the form of a pandemic,” he said.
“Meanwhile, some of the drivers of the spread of infection remain unaddressed despite repeated attacks of outbreaks of preventable diseases like cholera and typhoid, among others.
“Water scarcity, unmanaged refuse, sewage and general poor hygiene are still ingredients for propagating disease outbreaks.”
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation have declared the disease a global public health emergency for the second time in two years.
But in the case of Zimbabwe, Rusike said, there was a dire shortage of vaccines required to combat Mpox.
“There has not been much progress in ensuring local availability of medicines, diagnostics nor vaccines,” he said.
Mpox was first identified in apes in 1958 and in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Since then, the disease has been documented in several central and west African nations, including Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Cameroon.
Over 19 000 cases have been reported in Africa, with the DRC accounting for 90%.
