By Evans Dakwa, News Editor
Harare – The Ministry of Health and Child Care has confirmed the first two cases of the Mpox viral disease in Zimbabwe. The first case is of an 11 year old boy and the second of a 24 year old male. Both patients had a travel history to SA and Tanzania respectively and are currently in isolation at home.
The confirmation was made by the Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Douglas Mombeshora this afternoon in a media briefing.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care wishes to inform the nation that Zimbabwe now has two (2) confirmed cases of Mpox: one in Harare and another in Mberengwa. Both cases are in isolation at home, and are receiving appropriate care. Both cases are stable and recovering,” said Dr Mombeshora.
The Minister did shed more light on more light on the two cases indicating both patients had recent travel history outside Zimbabwe and the contact tracing efforts done thus far in respect of the two cases.
“Case number 1 is an 11-year-old male child with a known history of having travelled to South Africa in August 2024, returning to Zimbabwe on the 10th of September 2024. He developed symptoms on the 23rd of September 2024. He is currently in isolation at home and is no longer infectious. Seven (7) contacts have since been identified and are being monitored.”
“Case number 2 is a 24-year-old male with a known history of having travelled to Tanzania on the 14th of September 2024 and came back on the 21 of September 2024. He developed symptoms on the 29th of September 2024. He is currently in isolation at home and is no longer infectious. Contact tracing and monitoring is underway,” he added.
Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox) was declared a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security by Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on the 13th of August 2024. It was then declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) by World Health Organization (WHO) on the 14th of August 2024. In Africa, there are 7535 confirmed cumulative cases of Mpox and 32 deaths reported so far in 2024.
As the country confirms Mpox is officially on our shores, it is urging the public to be more vigilant informing that the Ministry has been ready for and on high alert and thus will ride on already established systems to try and quell the disease.