Cape Town - The scrapping of the last Covid-19 curbs, including wearing masks indoors and doing away with restrictions on gatherings, shouldn’t make South Africans lose sight of a possible monkeypox outbreak.
That it took so long for the country to detect and identify the first case, should be cause for concern.
The case was confirmed last week in a press briefing when Health Minister Joe Phaahla told the nation that the 30-year-old patient from Joburg had no recent travel history.
On Tuesday the Health Ministry called for vigilance as South Africa recorded another case – a 32-year-old Cape Town man, also with no travel history.
More worrying is the fact that these cases suggest there is a high possibility of local transmission.
The source and linkage of cases remain under investigation, and the Department of Health working together with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases constantly assess the risk for local transmission in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in line with the International Health Regulations.
While the WHO has not recommended any travel restrictions, Phaahla says it is important for travellers to countries where the disease is endemic to alert health officials on the situation to enable them to provide guidance for case detection and management. Just because monkeypox is less contagious than smallpox and causes less severe illness does not mean we should not take it seriously.
The country’s health authorities can ill afford to drop the ball. The lessons learnt during the country’s response to HIV, TB and Covid-19 should be used as a guiding tool to arrest the latest virus on our shores.
Already there are worrying signs and unfortunate remarks that could lead to those with the virus being discriminated against.
Our country would have learnt from previous outbreaks that the stigma attached to viruses contributed significantly to people dying in silence.
As with the Covid-19 pandemic, there should be concerted and improved efforts to raise awareness, especially in areas where health facilities are scarce.
South Africans should also guard against taxpayers’ hard-earned cash being given to cronies.
Cape Times