Maputo, July 16 (IANS) Mozambican authorities have confirmed three new cases of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, according to Inocencio Impissa, spokesperson for the Council of Ministers.

Speaking on Tuesday, Impissa said the cases were three Mozambican citizens who had travelled between Mozambique and neighbouring Malawi and were identified in Niassa province, in northern Mozambique.

“What the country has done is to place them in quarantine so that they can be monitored in an isolated setting, preventing them from spreading the disease. The health sector is alert and working to ensure that the cases remain contained in Lago District, Niassa, and do not spread to other areas,” Impissa told a press conference in Beira, Sofala province, where the Council of Ministers held its session.

With these three new infections, the total number of confirmed mpox cases in Mozambique has risen to 11, according to health authorities.

Mozambique recorded its first mpox cases in 2022, in the capital, Maputo, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the World Health Organization, Mpox is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, 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 (such as touching or sex) and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact (such as kissing), 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).

People with multiple sexual partners are at higher risk of acquiring mpox.

People can also contract mpox from contaminated objects such as clothing or linen, through needle injuries in health care, or in community settings such as tattoo parlours.

During pregnancy or birth, the virus may be passed to the baby. Contracting mpox during pregnancy can be dangerous for the fetus or newborn infant and can lead to loss of the pregnancy, stillbirth, death of the newborn, or complications for the parent.

The monkeypox virus was discovered in Denmark (1958) in monkeys kept for research. The first reported human case of mpox was a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1970). Following the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the end of smallpox vaccination worldwide, mpox steadily emerged in central, east and west Africa. Since then, mpox has been reported sporadically in central and east Africa (clade I) and west Africa (clade II).

In 2003, an outbreak in the United States of America was linked to imported wild animals (clade II). Since 2005, thousands of cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo every year. In 2017, mpox re-emerged in Nigeria and continues to spread between people across the country and in travellers to other destinations.

–IANS

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