South Africa records one new case of mpox, national total now 25

The health department has confirmed one new case of mpox, bringing the total number of cases reported in the country to 25. This includes three deaths, 19 recoveries and three people in isolation at home. 

Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said in a statement that 12 cases had been reported in Gauteng, 11 in KwaZulu-Natal and now two in the Western Cape.

The latest patient has neither an international travel history nor contact with a suspected or confirmed mpox case.

Mohale said based on the current number of active mpox cases, South Africa has enough vaccines.  

Earlier this year, South Africa secured a few batches of Tecovirimat, also known as TPOXX, donated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of “ongoing support to the country’s response efforts to this preventable and manageable disease”.

Last week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the first shipment of 99 100 doses of the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine had arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has had the biggest outbreak of mpox since September 2023 caused by the spread of the new clade I MPXV variant. 

Since the start of 2024, the DRC has reported more than 4 901 mpox cases, with more than 629 associated deaths, representing a sharp escalation in both infections and fatalities compared with previous years.

In 2023, the DRC reported 14 626 mpox cases and 654 deaths — the highest figures recorded in the country and the highest among countries in the WHO African region.

The DRC’s health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba, said the newly received vaccine will be rolled out to adults in the country’s high-risk areas.

“We know which provinces are heavily affected, notably Equateur and South Kivu,” he said. “The idea is to contain the virus as quickly as possible.” 

JYNNEOS, which was first administered in 2022 to curb the global outbreak, is a live virus vaccine scientifically proven to be safe and effective for the prevention of mpox, according to various centres for disease control.  

The clade I variant reported in the DRC’s South Kivu district bordering Uganda and Rwanda carries predominantly APOBEC3-type mutations, indicating an adaptation of the virus as a result of circulation among humans.

It is not known whether this variant is more transmissible or leads to more severe disease than other clade I MPXV strains. 

The clade I strain has also spread to Burundi, which has reported 100 cases. Rwanda has four cases, Uganda 10 and Kenya has five confirmed cases.

According to the WHO, mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus. Common symptoms are a skin rash, which can last for up to four weeks, accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.

South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire are experiencing the spread of the clade II variation, which is reportedly less lethal. Cameroon and the DRC are the only countries reported to have both variants of mpox.

The virus has also been detected in Pakistan, the Philippines, Sweden and Thailand. So far, no countries have reported travel and trade restrictions because of the mpox outbreak. 

In August, the WHO and the Africa CDC declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. 

The virus was discovered in 1958 in monkeys kept for research in Denmark. It was first discovered in humans in 1970.