Health and Population Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said that no cases of mpox (monkeypox), the infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus, have been detected in Egypt or any neighboring countries.
Speaking to Sada El Balad TV station on Friday 16/8/2024, he added the ministry has been on alert, in constant contact with the World Health Organization and working through its preventive medicine department to monitor all land, sea and air points of entry to the country.
Also, it has updated the mpox guide and begun training doctors and health workers on methods for the early detection and diagnosis of the disease, he said.
On Thursday, World Health Organization (WHO) said that as the mpox outbreak that has affected the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spread to neighbouring countries continues to grow, it is intensifying support to countries to scale up measures to curb the virus and save lives.
According to the organization, so far this year, more than 2,100 laboratory-confirmed cases an
d 13 deaths have been reported from 12 countries (Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda) compared with 1,145 confirmed cases and seven deaths in the whole of 2023 reported from 11 countries.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has already declared a public health emergency in Africa after its scientists said they are alarmed by the speed at which a new strand of mpox has been spreading across the continent.
Caused by an Orthopoxvirus, mpox was first detected in humans in 1970, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease which can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever, is considered endemic to countries in central and west Africa. Mpox is transmitted from animals to humans. It can also spread from humans to humans through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat,
respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.
Source: State Information Service Egypt