Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican health authorities said o Tuesday that more than half of the confirmed cases of mpox in the country have recovered and there have been no deaths.
“Of the total 38 positive cases, 20 have now recovered from the disease and have been discharged home. So far, we have had no deaths from the disease and we hope, wish and are working to prevent any deaths from the disease in the country,” said National Director of Public Health Quinhas Fernandes during a training seminar for journalists on “rumour mitigation and a responsible approach to mpox in the media” in Maputo.
Mozambique recorded four more cases of mpox in the province of Niassa, the epicentre of the outbreak, bringing the total to 38 in one month, with the total number of suspected cases rising to 325.
According to the Mozambican director of public health, of this cumulative number of positive cases of mpox, at least 23 are men and the remaining 15 are women. Of the same 38 confirmed cases, a total of 31 are aged between 15 and 45.
Quinhas Fernandes also said that Niassa has at least 14 cases of foreign patients, pointing to “intense cross-border movement” as one of the main causes of the spread of the disease in that province, which borders Tanzania and Malawi.
“Intense cross-border movement, both of illegal miners, because it is a mining area, and of female sex workers, has been playing an important role in the dynamics of disease transmission in that area,” he added.
By Sunday, Mozambique had also recorded 12 new suspected cases, bringing the total to 325 in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Tete, Manica, Nampula and Zambézia, with 137 contacts being followed up by the health authorities.
To date, health authorities have recorded 33 cases of mpox in Niassa (north), two in Manica (centre) and three in Maputo province (south).
The national director of Public Health on Wednesday called for panic and disinformation about mpox to be avoided in order to combat discrimination that may arise against victims.
Mozambique expects to receive vaccines in September to contain a possible spread of mpox cases, the government announced on Tuesday.
Mozambican authorities announced last week that they would step up border surveillance with screening and testing teams to halt the spread of the disease.
MPOX is a zoonotic viral disease first identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the current outbreak in southern Africa, since 1 January, 77,458 cases of the disease have been reported in 22 countries, with 501 deaths.
The first case of mpox in Mozambique occurred in October 2022, with one patient in Maputo. The leader of COESP, an agency of the National Directorate of Public Health, points to the testing capacity that now exists in the provinces, with 4,000 tests available and 1,000 for reagent analysis to identify strains of positive cases, as the major change in three years.
Mozambique now has the capacity to test in all provincial capitals through public health laboratories, he said.
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