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How prepared is Uganda for monkeypox outbreak?
The outbreaks have been reported in America, Europe, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The virus is endemic in West African countries.
What you need to know:
- According to the Africa CDC and the WHO, the monkeypox virus is transmitted to humans through close contact with blood, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. The Africa CDC said human infections also occur through the handling of infected monkeys, giant rats and squirrels, with rodents being the most likely reservoir of the virus.
Infectious disease scientists in the country have said there is no need for mass vaccination against monkeypox because they don’t see a major outbreak in the same way as Covid-19.
Dr Julius Lutwama, a virologist at Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), told Sunday Monitor on Friday that they are on high alert, regardless.
He said they have made a request to their partner institute at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to give them reagents to help in testing the monkeypox virus.
The DRC has grappled with the disease for years.
“We are not testing [for monkeypox virus]. We do not have the reagents. We have requested for assistance and as soon as the reagents come in, we may be able to test. We don’t plan to test everybody entering the country because it is not necessary. We will only test suspected cases,” Dr Lutwama said.
The main signs and symptoms of monkeypox infection are fevers and blisters, according to health experts.
Dr Allan Muruta— the commissioner in-charge of epidemics at the Health ministry—much like Dr Lutwama, doesn’t see any reason for Ugandans to be anxious.
“It is a well-known virus. It has been around [in the neighbouring country, DRC] and it doesn’t cause much of a scare. It can be managed,” Dr Muruta said.
The UVRI virologist doesn’t support the assumption that the virus categorised as containable by the World Health Organisation (WHO) could have mutated.
“There is nothing so strange about the disease. Just because people in Europe are reporting, there shouldn’t be a lot of hype. People have always been going to DRC and back, there has been a lot of trade with DRC, the country gets thousands of cases [of monkeypox] every year,” Dr Lutwama said.
Information from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) indicates that the recent major outbreaks of the virus were in Cameroon in 2018, Nigeria in 2017 and the Central Africa Republic in 2016. The outbreaks produced 275 confirmed and suspected cases.
With low surveillance in the developing countries, many cases go unreported and cases may not be confirmed using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests, which are expensive and inaccessible or required reagents are hard to find.
In its Thursday update, the WHO said 200 cases of the disease have been confirmed and there are 100 suspected cases. The global health agency called for increased surveillance across the globe, saying there are probably more unreported cases.
The outbreaks have been reported in America, Europe, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The virus is endemic in West African countries.
Dr Charles Olaro, the director of clinical services at the Ministry of Health, told Sunday Monitor that they are screening people who enter the country from DRC. The screening is the same as that in Covid-19 prevention, which includes temperature screening and sanitising.
“We have notified our points to be on the lookout for monkeypox. Uganda is near DR Congo and there are people who have antibodies [against monkeypox], meaning they were exposed to the virus,” he said.
With 10 percent getting severe monkeypox, it means the virus is more brutal than Covid-19. An estimated five percent of the affected people develop severe disease. Dr Lutwama, however, says “Covid-19 is more transmissible than monkeypox, and so it infects more people.”
American and European countries where cases have been reported have reportedly ordered vaccines to inoculate their population against the virus. The WHO said last week that “vaccination against smallpox has been shown to be protective against monkeypox.
While one vaccine (MVA-BN) and one specific treatment (tecovirimat) were approved for monkeypox, in 2019 and 2022 respectively, these countermeasures are yet to be widely available.”
Many African health experts, including Dr Lutwama, have said there is a double standard because the vaccines and drugs have not been available to Africans despite grappling with the disease for several years.
