The Kenyan Ministry of Health has dispatched healthcare workers to Taita-Taveta County after a case of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was detected in the region on Wednesday.
According to authorities, the infected individual had traveled through Taita-Taveta County, which borders Tanzania. In response, the ministry has initiated contact tracing and enhanced surveillance efforts to prevent further spread of the virus.
“We are doing what we are calling contact tracing and more surveillance,” said Mary Muthoni, Principal Secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Health. “Our port health officers at all 32 points of entry are well trained and we are able to monitor any kind of outbreak that may be at the border level.”
Mpox is endemic to forested areas of East, Central, and West Africa. Symptoms include fever, rash, headache, swollen lymph nodes, and body aches. The virus can spread through direct contact with an infected person or through respiratory droplets.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that since the start of 2022, at least 1,450 people have died of mpox across 15 African countries. In the past seven months, 14,250 mpox cases and 456 deaths have been recorded.
Haji Mohamed Mwakio, a Taita-Taveta County resident, expressed concern for the community, stating that he has not seen any measures being taken to advise the public on healthy practices.
Muthoni assured that medical officials are following up on the patient and the people they have encountered. “We have been able to isolate this patient after testing,” she said. “We are yet to confirm how many people he was with, so we have deployed our health teams to Taita-Taveta for the response.”
Health officials are worried about the potential for an outbreak across several countries. Burundi, Central African Republic, and Rwanda have reported mpox cases for the first time this week.
Mwakio emphasized the need for countries to work together to manage the spread of the virus by taking precautions and control measures at border points, as well as educating communities on how to protect themselves.
In response to the outbreak, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an organization that develops vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, announced plans to provide an mpox vaccine to those who have been exposed to the virus to see if it can protect them from the illness.
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