A 38-year-old man has become the second fatality registered in South Africa by mpox, disease formerly known as monkeypox, after six cases were confirmed since May 8, Health Minister Joe Phaahla reported this Thursday.
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The patient was admitted to a hospital in Mgungundlovu, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), and tested positive for mpox this Wednesday after presenting “extensive injuries, headache, fatigue, mouth ulcers, muscle pain and sore throat,” the minister said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the patient died in KZN on the same day his test results came back positive. This brings the total number of positive cases in the country from five to six and two deaths in a five-week period,” Phaahla stressed. stating that the deceased had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The minister announced this Wednesday the first death from the disease, a 37-year-old man who died last Monday in eTembisa hospital (north).
“All cases/patients are men between 30 and 39 years old with no travel history to countries currently experiencing an outbreak, which suggests that there is local transmission of this infectious disease in the country,” the head of the branch explained then.
The five cases recorded before the second death were classified as “severe cases” requiring hospitalization, according to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The cases have comorbidities and men who have sex with men have been identified as a key population,” said the minister.
This infectious disease can cause painful skin rashes or with itching, including pimples or blisters, although it is “preventable and treatable if diagnosed in time,” the minister emphasized this Thursday, who urged “avoid physical contact with someone who has mpox” and “practice hand hygiene .
According to the WHO, last March, 466 cases of mpox in 22 countries and three deaths were confirmed worldwide through laboratory tests, although suspicions of possible cases point to a much higher number.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, the virus has caused more than 4,500 cases and about 300 deaths since the end of 2023, saccording to the UN agency.
The WHO already warned at the end of last March that this new outbreak of mpox virus – from a different family than the one that caused an international emergency in 2022 – represents a risk for the Congolese population, neighboring countries and the world.
The WHO representative in the DRC, Dr. Boureima Hama Sambo, then highlighted the higher lethality of the mpox outbreak that he declared the international emergency between July 2022 and May 2023, after nearly 90,000 cases were recorded in 111 countries, with 140 deaths in Europe, America and other areas.
EFE
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