Pretoria – Two more laboratory confirmed cases of Mpox have been recorded this week, the Department of Health said in a statement Thursday.
Available scientific data suggests that the disease is transmitted from person to person within the borders of the country.
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“This increases the total number of positive cases from 20 to 22 since the outbreak of Mpox in May this year; the number of deaths remains at three,” the department said.
“This is despite heightened public awareness and intensive contact tracing activities to curb the spread of the disease.
“The latest cases include a 40-year-old man diagnosed at a private health facility in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on 6 July 2024.”
The department revealed that the patient is from Johannesburg, Gauteng but travelled to Durban over the past weekend where a Mpox-like rash developed.
The other case is a 26-year-old man from Nqutu in KwaZulu-Natal who presented with Mpox-like rash to a local hospital.
“Both new cases self-identified as MSM [Men who have sex with men] with no international, but local travel history,” the department said.
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The department would like to urge all people who experience any of the Mpox symptoms, with or without an international travel history to present themselves to a health facility for clinical observation and confine themselves to one place until their test results are available.
Contact tracing and monitoring are ongoing in both provinces, especially amongst the close contacts of the patients.
“We urge all the identified and suspected contacts to cooperate with health officials during contact tracing for screening and possible diagnosis to prevent further transmission of this preventable and treatable disease,” the department said.
The department called for the public to maintain vigilance and never lower their guard against Mpox disease, as the country remains on high alert for a possible surge.
