Two more Mpox cases recorded in KZN as health department traces contacts

The Department of Health confirmed that as of Thursday afternoon, two more Mpox cases had been recorded, taking the total number of cases in South Africa to 22.

The Department of Health called for the public to maintain vigilance and never lower their guard against Mpox disease (previously called monkeypox), as the country remains on high alert for a possible surge.

“Two more laboratory-confirmed cases of Mpox have been recorded this week, and available scientific data suggests that the disease is transmitting from person-to-person within the borders of the country,” department spokesperson Foster Mohale said.

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This increases the total number of positive cases from 20 to 22 since the outbreak of Mpox in May this year; the number of deaths remains at three.

Latest cases

The latest cases include a 40-year-old man diagnosed at a private health facility in Durban, on 6 July. The patient is from Johannesburg but travelled to Durban over the past weekend, where a Mpox-like rash developed.

The other case is a 26-year-old man from Nqutu, KwaZulu-Natal, who presented with Mpox-like rash to a local hospital. Both new cases self-identified as MSM (men who have sex with men) with no international but local travel history.

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“The department would like to urge all people who experience any of the Mpox symptoms, with or without international travel history, to present themselves to a health facility for clinical observation and confine themselves to one place until their test results are available.

Contact tracing and monitoring are ongoing in both provinces, especially among the close contacts of the patients.

“We urge all the identified and suspected contacts to cooperate with health officials during contact tracing for screening and possible diagnosis to prevent further transmission of this preventable and treatable disease,” Mohale concluded.

Common symptoms

Common symptoms of Mpox include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle aches
• Back pain
• Low energy and swollen glands (lymph nodes)
• A rash that may last for two to four weeks

The rash looks like blisters or sores and can affect the face, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, etc.