Mozambique raises alert over new Mpox variant

Mozambique’s health ministry raised its alert level on Friday over a new variant of the monkeypox virus (Mpox) and said the country had developed a “response plan” for the disease, although it has not recorded any cases.

“In Mozambique, since there are currently no cases, we have not declared an emergency. What we have done is to raise the alert level,” Quinas Fernandes, the national director of public health, said during a press conference in Maputo.

Given the international declaration of the disease as an outbreak, the Mozambican authorities have developed a response plan in addition to raising the alert level, Quinas Fernandes said.

“We have raised the alert level so that we can take preventive measures and prepare for a possible response,” he said.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, but can also be spread through close physical contact with an infected person.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the smallpox outbreak in Africa a global health emergency on Saturday, with cases confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new variant in circulation.

The organization called for a unified international response given the detection of a new variant of the virus in Europe (Sweden) a day after the first case was reported in Asia (Pakistan).

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the disease was particularly affecting marginalised communities who needed clear information on how to protect themselves and spot the symptoms.

They also need to be encouraged to seek medical attention when signs of infection appear, and this requires addressing the stigma surrounding the disease, which is a major reason why people do not seek help.

Half a million doses of one of two rapidly developed Mpox vaccines are currently available, according to the WHO, and another 2.5 million doses could be produced next year.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, but is also spread through close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.

Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970, in what is now the DR Congo (formerly Zaire), with the spread of the clade I subtype (of which the new variant is a mutation) since then largely confined to West and Central African countries, where patients are usually infected by animals.

In 2022, a worldwide epidemic of clade II subtype spread to over a hundred countries where the disease was not endemic, affecting mainly homosexual and bisexual men.

The WHO declared a state of alert in July 2022 in response to the global outbreak, but lifted it less than a year later in May 2023. The epidemic has caused about 140 deaths out of about 90,000 cases.