The Department of Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has urged South Africans to be more vigilant following another laboratory confirmed case of mpox and second death linked to the disease bringing the total number of deaths to two and seven laboratory confirmed cases within a five week period.
The first case was recorded at Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng province.
The Department of Health has announced that the second death is of a 38-year old male patient who is living with HIV was admitted at a local hospital in uMgungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal after testing positive for mpox on Wednesday.
The patient’s address is listed as Brakpan, Gauteng.
He presented with extensive lesions, lymphadenopathy, headache, fatigue, oral ulcers, muscle pain and sore throat.
So far all cases diagnosed are male patients and none of them have travelled outside the South Africa.
The latest case is a 39-year old male patient who was admitted on 28 May 2024 at local private health facility in Cape Town after testing positive for mpox on Thursday, 13 June 2024 by a private laboratory. He presented with extensive lesions and he is RVD positive with unknown CD4.
The disesase is caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), an orthopoxyvirus that transmits from person to person through close contact, and from unknown animal reserviors in East, Central and West Africa.
It is characterised by sustained human-to-human transmission via direct skin-to-skin and sexual contact, people living with HIV are disproportionately affected.
Minister Phaahla further explained that mpox has had an outbreak in 2022 to over 100 countries.
He reiterated the importance of hygiene, timely presenting at the health facility for early diagnosis and effective treatment in case of suspected symptoms and close physical contact with a known case.
“People are urged to avoid physical contact with someone who has mpox, practice hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette. Diagnosed cases/patients should where possible, avoid contact with immunocompromised people, children or pregnant women who may be at higher risk of severe symptoms if exposed, ” said Minister Phaahla.
The Department of Health is working with both Gauteng and KZN departments of Health to investigate the new case.
The World Health Organisation has shared the mpox symptoms as fever, muscle aches and sore throat appear first.
The mpox rash begins on the face and spreads over the body, extending to the palms of the hands and soles of the feet and evolves over 2-4 weeks in stages – macules, papules, vesicles, pustules. Lesions dip in the centre before crusting over.