The Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, announced that his department has teamed up with partner organisations to create an awareness campaign in hopes of empowering citizens with crucial information relating to the monkeypox (Mpox) disease.
South Africa is among the countries experiencing an outbreak of Mpox, with five cases reported thus far.
Phaahla said the shared concern was that there is currently no registered treatment available for cases of the Mpox virus in South Africa.
“However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of Tecovirimat (TPOXX) for treatment of severe cases, such as in individuals with a CD4 count of less than 350,” he confirmed.
The department has obtained TPOXX via Section 21 of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority’s (Sahpra) approval, on compassionate use basis for the five known patients.
The disease is a viral infection that spreads between people, and occasionally from the environment to people, via objects and surfaces that have been touched by a person with Mpox.
Two of the cases recorded in South Africa were confirmed to be in Gauteng, and three in KwaZulu-Natal. One death has been reported – which pertains to one of the two cases reported in Gauteng. The patient reportedly died in the Tembisa Hospital on 10 June.
Phaahla said all the patients were men, aged between 30 and 39 years, who have no travel history to the countries currently experiencing an outbreak.
“This suggests there is a local transmission of this infectious disease in the country.
“All five cases were classified as severe, as per WHO’s definition, requiring hospitalisation.
“The cases have co-morbidities and have been identified as belonging to the key population of men who have sex with men (MSM).
“Thus, the department is reaching out to organisations working on HIV programmes and with key populations, in addition to other stakeholders, to implement targeted communication to intensify awareness about the outbreak and local transmission of the disease,” said Phaahla.
He said that all the provinces have been notified of the cases that meet the case definition of a suspected Mpox case in the Notifiable Medical Condition (NMC) system.
“The Outbreak Response Team, comprising experts of the department, provinces, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the WHO and other stakeholders in the health sector have embarked on contact tracing and case finding in the affected provinces.
“All National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) laboratories have been sensitised to the ongoing outbreak and are referring samples for testing to the NICD.
“Private sector laboratories are also testing for Mpox, while the NICD serves as the reference laboratory,” confirmed Phaahla.
Since the beginning of this year, said Phaahla, the NICD has received 12 Mpox test requests, with three of these testing positive.
“The other two cases were diagnosed by private laboratories. Guidelines have been updated and shared widely across networks of healthcare workers using various platforms,” said Phaahla.
