Africa CDC urges aggressive action to curb mpox outbreak in southern Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, May 31 (IANS) The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) called for aggressive efforts to control mpox in southern Ethiopia to avert possible cross-border spread.

The East African country reported its first mpox case on May 25 when a 21-day-old infant tested positive in Moyale near the Kenyan border.

On Friday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health announced that the number of cases has now reached six as three new cases were confirmed.

During an online media briefing on Thursday evening, Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff and head of the Executive Office at Africa CDC, expressed concern due to Moyale town's close proximity to neighbouring Somalia.

"The proximity to Somalia, and knowing all the challenges in Somalia, makes it so that we really need to be very bold and aggressive to control this outbreak from the source so that it does not expand from the region," he said.

Meanwhile, Ngongo said that the African continent has reported 139,233 mpox cases since the start of last year. Of these, 34,824 were confirmed and about 1,788 related deaths were recorded, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the World Health Organisation, Mpox is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, result in fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain and low energy. Most people fully recover, but some get very sick.

Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact with someone who has mpox, including members of a household. Close contact includes skin-to-skin and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact, and it can also include being face-to-face with someone who has mpox (such as talking or breathing close to one another, which can generate infectious respiratory particles).

Mpox causes signs and symptoms which usually begin within a week but can start 1–21 days after exposure. Symptoms typically last 2–4 weeks but may last longer in someone with a weakened immune system.

For some people, the first symptom of mpox is a rash, while others may have a fever, muscle aches, or sore throat first.

The mpox rash often begins on the face and spreads over the body, extending to the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It can also start on other parts of the body where contact is made, such as the genitals. It starts as a flat sore, which develops into a blister filled with liquid that may be itchy or painful. As the rash heals, the lesions dry up, crust over, and fall off.

--IANS

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