Kampala, July 25 (IANS) Uganda has recorded a 69.9 per cent decline in mpox cases over the past four weeks, according to a new situation report released on Friday by the Ministry of Health.

The report shows that weekly reported cases dropped consistently from 233 in epidemiological week 26 to 173 in week 27, 108 in week 28, and 70 in week 29.

“This corresponds to a 25.8 per cent decrease from week 26 to 27, 37.6 per cent from week 27 to 28, and 35.2 per cent from week 28 to 29,” the report noted.

“Overall, there was a 69.9 per cent cumulative reduction in incident cases reported over the four-week period.”

Since the outbreak was declared in August last year, Uganda has recorded 7,648 confirmed mpox cases and 48 deaths.

Health authorities have stepped up vaccination, surveillance, case management, and public awareness initiatives to curb the spread of the virus, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the World Health Organisation, 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).

–IANS

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