The Lofa County Health Team on Wednesday announced one confirmed case of Mpox and one suspected case in two health districts of the county. According to the Acting County Health Officer Edmond Eisah, the one confirmed case involves a 2-years-old male residing in Yeala Town, Zorzor District, Lofa County who was taken to the Clinic in Yeala on August 29, 2024 by his mother to seek medical care.
The latest confirmed case of Mpox brings to two the number of confirmed cases of this disease in Liberia since World Health Organization (WHO) declared Mpox an international Public Health emergency of international concern on August 14, 2024, the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) disclosed on Monday.
On the latest confirmed case of the virus in Lofa, the County Health Officer told journalists that the child presented with generalized rashes on his body, fever, and body pain.
Mr. Eisah disclosed that the child was isolated and treated with antibiotics, analgesics, and calamine lotion and sent home for close monitoring on August 29, 2024 while three specimens including the blood, swab and crust were collected on August 29, 2024 and transported to the National Reference Laboratory for confirmation.
“The two years old suspect was confirmed of Mpox disease on September 3, 2024 by the National Reference Laboratory while four contacts have been line-listed for close monitoring by the community surveillance team,” he added.
According to the acting CHO, the districts and county Incident Management Systems (IMS) have all been activated, including case investigation, active case finding, IPC measures, case management and risk communication and community engagements.
Meanwhile, the Lofa County health team has also reported one suspected Mpox case in Voinjama health district. According to the WHO, Mpox monkeypox) is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus. It can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever. Most people fully recover, but some get very sick.
The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus (commonly abbreviated as MPXV), an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the Poxviridae family, which includes variola, cowpox, vaccinia and other viruses. The two genetic clades of the virus are clades I and II.
The monkeypox virus was discovered in Denmark (1958) in monkeys kept for research and the first reported human case of mpox was a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, 1970).
Mpox can spread from person to person or occasionally from animals to people. Following the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the end of smallpox vaccination worldwide, mpox steadily emerged in central, east and West Africa. A global outbreak occurred in 2022–2023 and the natural reservoir of the virus is unknown-various small mammals such as squirrels and monkeys are susceptible.
