The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, has assured Ugandans that the outbreak of monkeypox (Mpox) within the nation is below management and being managed effectively by her ministry.
“An emergency response mechanism, the Incident Management System, constant to what was used to answer the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Ebola epidemic response has been activitaed,” she advised Members of Parliament in her satement on the monkeypox scenario in Uganda throughout a plenary session chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, on Thursday, 15 August 2024.
On 24 July 2024, the Uganda Virus Research Institute confirmed two instances of Mpox from six samples obtained from Bwera Hospital in Kasese District. No new instances which were reported throughout the nation.
The World Health Organsiation on 14 August 2024, decared the Mpox outbreak as a public well being emergency of worldwide concern.
Mpox is a self-limiting illness presenting with pastules or small boils on the pores and skin. Often, it’s also related to excessive grade fever, swelling of lymph nodes,
headache and common physique weak point.
Treatment is symptomatic relying on the criticism as there is no such thing as a particular therapy for the virus.
According to Aceng, Mpox transmission to people is by contact with the contaminated animals. Among people, it spreads by direct contact with an contaminated individual.
However, she warned that regardless of self-limiting nature of Mpox, in various instances, the illness might be deadly and should trigger dying particularly in youngsters below 5 years, pregnant ladies and people with weak immunity.
“If strong interventions are usually not made, an infection might unfold and large affected person case numbers can overwhelm the well being methods as we see elsewhere,” she warned.
Since the start of the yr, greater than 17,000 Mpox instances and greater than 500 deaths have been reported in 13 nations in Africa, together with DR Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi in keeping with the Africa Centre for Disease management and prevention.
