Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican health authorities have confirmed three cases of M-pox, all in the northern province of Niassa, but have raised the total number of suspected cases to 11, according to the disease’s progress report released on Monday.
According to the National Directorate of Public Health’s report, with data from July 11 to 13, seven more suspected cases had been recorded in the previous 24 hours alone, with 13 still being monitored and 14 in isolation, but no deaths had so far been recorded.
Health authorities are not confirming the information released on Sunday by the governor of the northern province of Niassa, given the possibility of two more cases of the disease being recorded.
“We already have five cases here, we were at three, but it’s rising, and there are still many people being tested with suspected cases of this disease. […] We have to be careful with this disease because it is easily transmissible,” Governor Elina Massengele told reporters during a visit to the Sanga district.
The first and so far only three cases of M-pox were confirmed on July 11 by health authorities, who stated at the time that the patients were stable and in isolation.
“The patients are clinically stable and are in home isolation, under monitoring by health authorities,” the Ministry of Health stated.
These first three cases were detected in the Lago district, which borders Tanzania, near Lake Niassa. They were identified as suspected cases on July 8 at the administrative posts of Metangula and Cobue, and two days later were confirmed as M-pox by the public health laboratory.
A source from the Ministry of Health confirmed to Lusa that these are the first three cases of M-pox in Mozambique in the current outbreak affecting several countries in the African region. They noted that, from January 1st to July 8th, 77,458 cases of the disease were reported in 22 countries, resulting in 501 deaths.
In response to the cases detected in Niassa, as Lusa reported on July 11th, the Ministry of Health, through the National Directorate of Public Health and the National Institute of Health, “mobilized a technical team to support the affected province and district,” which will monitor the treatment of patients, as well as “identify and quarantine close contacts (…), strengthen epidemiological surveillance, and promote the dissemination of prevention messages to the population.”
The first cases in the previous M-pox outbreak in Mozambique were first recorded in 2022, in Maputo.
In the southern African region, which includes Mozambique, cases have previously been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
M-pox is a zoonotic viral disease, first identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In August 2024, the World Health Organization declared Pox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern for the second time, due to the increase in the number of cases, deaths, and geographic spread, the Mozambican Ministry of Health noted.
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