NEW ALAMEIN – Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development and Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar asserted that no cases of mpox (monkeypox), the infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus, have been detected in Egypt so far.
He added the ministry is following up on global, regional and local epidemiological updates on a daily basis.
Abdel Ghaffar was speaking at a cabinet’s meeting, led by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli at the cabinet’s headquarters in New Alamein City on Thursday.
He added that the ministry is in constant contact with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is working through its preventive medicine department to monitor the country’s land crossings and sea and air entry points.
Also, the health ministry has updated the mpox guide and begun training doctors and health workers on methods of early detection.
WHO said that as the mpox outbreak that has affected the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spread to neighboring countries continues to grow, it is intensifying support to countries to scale up measures to curb the virus and save lives.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has already declared a public health emergency in Africa after its scientists said they are alarmed by the speed at which a new strand of mpox has been spreading across the continent.
Caused by an Orthopoxvirus, mpox was first detected in humans in 1970, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease which can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever, is considered endemic to countries in central and west Africa.
Mpox is transmitted from animals to humans. It can also spread from humans to humans through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.
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