Suspected Mpox patients isolated in Kisoro district

A suspected case of Mpox has been registered at Bunagana border post a few days after  health workers in the area appealed to the government for a thermo scanner that can help in proper detection of the disease among fleeing Congolese refugees.

The health in charge at Bunagana border post, Mr Innocent Nkurunziza on August 28 said that the suspect is a Congolese one and a half year boy child who arrived at the border screening center at around 3:10pm in the company of his mother and father.

Mr Nkurunziza added the suspected patient together with his parents are from Gisenguro village Jomba territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is about 70Km away from Bunagana border post.

“During the screening exercise we established that the baby boy had Mpox related symptoms and we immediately isolated him together with his parents and they are yet to be transported to Kisoro District headquarters where samples will be obtained from them for testing at the Uganda Virus Research Institute [in Entebbe] to establish the cause of the Mpox like symptoms on this child,” Mr Nkurunziza said.

During the August 27 interview at Bunagana border post, Mr Nkurunziza appealed to the government for the timely supply of standard operating procedure (SOP) materials such as gloves, masks, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, coveralls and jik detergent that are essential in protecting the health workers doing the screening exercise from contracting the disease.

The Kisoro District health officer Dr Stephen Nsabiyunva on Wednesday evening confirmed the alert saying that he has already dispatched a team of health experts to pick samples from the suspected Mpox patient.

"Our preliminary findings show that the patient's symptoms are more of chicken pox than Mpox. Results from the picked samples shall establish the real diseases," Dr Nsabiyunva said.

The commissioner-department of Communicable Diseases, Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health, Dr Patrick Tusiime on Tuesday said that they welcome alerts about suspected Mpox disease patients because it demonstrates the  vigilance of the health workers at the screening centers.

The UN health agency on August 26 launched a six-month plan to help stanch outbreaks of Mpox transmission, including increasing staffing in affected countries and boosting surveillance, prevention and response strategies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it expects the plan from September through February next year will require $135 million in funding and aims to improve fair access to vaccines, notably in African countries hardest hit by the outbreak.

“The Mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a recent statement.