BETTER African surveillance and laboratory diagnosis to detect monkeypox is needed to stop a silent spread of the virus, both the World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
“If you’re able to control the spread of monkeypox from the source, particularly from the endemic countries, then other countries beyond Africa are going to be safer,” Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Africa CDC’s deputy director, said at a virtual briefing on Thursday.
The continent has reported 1 821 cases in 13 countries since the start of the year, the WHO said. Only about 110 of these cases are laboratory confirmed and account for 2% of the more than 4 500 confirmed cases globally.
While laboratory capacity was reinforced during the Covid-19 pandemic and all African countries have the polymerase chain reaction machines needed to test for monkeypox, many lack reagents, the WHO said. The organization is working
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