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Weeks after the disease was first detected in the East African country.
The virulent mpox strain spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo is responsible for 10 infections in neighbouring Uganda, weeks after the disease was first detected in the East African country.
Uganda has increased efforts to curb contagion including more public messaging, early detection and treatment and isolation of patients, Henry Kyobe, the head of Uganda’s mpox outbreak unit, said by phone from the capital, Kampala.
The number is likely an undercount as testing across the region remains low. Medical workers reported scores of people in eight villages in Busia district showing mpox symptoms last month, according to the Monitor newspaper. Many were initially suspected to be chickenpox as they were mainly children, it said. Since the outbreak began, about 200 cases have been tested in Uganda, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Uganda confirmed the first two cases at Bwera Hospital near the Congo border, according to the ministry. An emergency response mechanism and incident management system that were used to control Covid-19 and an Ebola pandemic in 2022 have been activated, Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng told lawmakers in August.
A surge in cases of the disease, which causes lesions that can result in blindness, disfigurement and death, has been attributed by the World Health Organisation to the clade Ib subvariant. Unlike earlier versions, this type seems to spread more easily through close contact including sex and is affecting children with weak immunity.
Burundi last week also started a national campaign to stop the spread after it spilled across its porous border with Congo, where hundreds of people including children have died.
