ALTHOUGH 15 countries have collectively reported more than 140 monkeypox cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed that there are currently no cases of the virus in South Africa.
On Monday, the NICD reported that on May 13, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases, and one probable case of monkeypox, from the same household in the United Kingdom.
NICD executive director Professor Adrian Puren said most cases are mild and present with lesions on the genitalia or peri-genital areas.
Additional symptoms include rash, fever, painful lymph nodes and oral ulcers.
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“Investigations have been unable to link that case to any of the other cases detected to date, suggesting that there have been multiple introductions of the virus into the United Kingdom and other countries, with cases potentially having gone undetected [until] now.
“A preliminary genome sequence from a confirmed Portuguese case indicates that the virus is the West African strain (with a reduced mortality of 1% compared to the 10% of the Congo Basin strain) and is most closely related to viruses associated with the exportation of monkeypox from Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Israel and Singapore during 2018-2019,” Puren said.
He added that milder cases may go undetected and represent a risk of person-to-person transmission.
“There is likely to be little immunity to the infection in those travelling or otherwise exposed, as endemic disease is usually geographically limited to parts of West and Central Africa,” he said.
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
