Two more men have tested positive for Mpox. The Department of Health said the men are aged 40 and 26 and have no international travel history. Graphic: Se-Anne Rall/IOL
Two more KwaZulu-Natal men have tested positive for Mpox, taking the country's total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 22.
The Department of Health said the men are aged 40 and 26 and have no international travel history.
“The 40-year-old man was diagnosed at a private health facility in Durban on July 6. The patient is from Johannesburg, Gauteng but travelled to Durban over the past weekend where a Mpox-like rash developed,” the department said.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old man is from Nqutu and presented with a Mpox-like rash at a local hospital.
"Both new cases self-identified as men who have sex with men (MSM) with no international, but local travel history," the department explained.
The DoH said the two more lab-confirmed cases suggests that the disease is transmitting from person-to-person within the borders of the country.
Three deaths have been recorded since the outbreak in South Africa in May.
Department spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said contact tracing and monitoring was ongoing in both provinces, especially amongst the close contacts of the patients.
"The department would like to urge all people who experience any of the Mpox symptoms, with or without international travel history to present themselves to a health facility for clinical observation and confine themselves to one place until their test results are available," Mohale said.
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