Malawi on alert as referral hospital registers suspected mpox case

Blantyre (Malawi), Aug 20 (IANS) A suspected case of mpox has been registered at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre City, the Southern Region, one of the largest referral hospitals in Malawi.

Chrissy Banda, senior health promotion officer for Blantyre District, confirmed the development with Xinhua news agency on Tuesday after an alert on the suspected case went viral on social media.

According to the confirmed alert, the suspected case is a 31-year-old man from Chikwawa, a district in Malawi's Southern Region bordering Mozambique, who was admitted to the health facility after presenting with rash, fever, and general body pains. The suspected patient has since been isolated in a separate ward pending lab tests. He has two contacts in Chikwawa who have since presented with the same rash.

The Blantyre District Health Office recently issued a statement announcing increased screening for mpox for all travelers passing through Chileka International Airport in the district, following an upsurge in mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries.

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), while the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has officially declared it a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS).

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