At a media event on Thursday in Pretoria, Health Minister Dr. Joe Phaahla announced that the first case of monkeypox in South Africa had been confirmed.
This cannot be traced to having been obtained outside of South Africa because the patient, a 30-year-old male from Johannesburg, Gauteng, has no history of travel.
“Late yesterday, I received word from the CEO of the National Health Laboratory Services that they had confirmed the first case of monkeypox in South Africa through laboratory tests. A procedure of contact tracing has started, and the patient is collaborating with the pertinent health authorities, according to Phaahla.
Usually a benign condition, monkeypox causes skin sores or blisters. It typically has a 1% fatality rate and is mild and self-limiting.
In the early 2000s, the disease was previously reported in several African nations, including Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic.
With over 700 cases, the UK leads the current outbreak in Europe, followed by Spain with little over 500 cases, Germany, Portugal, and France.
Less than 200 cases have also been documented in the USA and Canada.
The Minister stated that the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is providing online in-service training for healthcare professionals so they can identify the illness and order the required laboratory testing.
You cannot catch the illness just being in the same room as an infected individual because it only spreads through intimate touch.
The fundamental characteristic is that transmission occurs through close touch, which has so far been predominant among guys who have intercourse with other men, the Minister stated.
Monkeypox is not a novel virus that has never been seen before, and its characteristics are well recognized, Minister Phaahla reassured South Africans.
Professor Koleka Mlisana, chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19 and executive member of the National Health Laboratory Service, stated that monkeypox is an endemic illness that has been recognized to be mild and is prevalent in Central and Northern Africa.
She asserted that there are parallels between the monkeypox and the abolished smallpox.
For monkeypox, there are vaccinations and treatments available. The illness manifests as Legionnaires and flu-like symptoms.
The crucial thing is that someone who presents with a clinical picture is simple to identify and, more critically, it is difficult to transmit because it occurs through contact rather than a respiratory virus. She said that you could only contract it if you had direct touch with an infected person.
It has always been endemic in Central and Northern Africa, but recently there have been reports of monkeypox outside of Africa, and when looking at the cases, they have been primarily in guys who have sex with other men, according to the professor.
She clarified that this does not imply that HPV just spreads through guys who have sex with men, but rather through any direct touch.
Contact tracing, according to Professor Mlisana, is crucial in this situation and the Health Department will keep doing it.
She reassured South Africans that the laboratory infrastructure has the resources to be able to keep track of any potential new diseases.