The Tanzanian government has issued an alert over the monkeypox disease that has affected various countries around the world. This, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) links a growing number of monkeypox cases outside Africa to international travel.
Tanzania’s Ministry of Health says it is taking precautions against a possible outbreak of Monkeypox despite not having recorded a single case of the disease. The department has begun sharing information on symptoms with members of the public, urging them to be cautious.
With symptoms including rashes, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, muscle and body aches, the public is being urged to visit health centres to get diagnosed and treated. The public has also been cautioned against eating, or even touching sick animals or carcasses.
To ensure residents are protected, the government says it has begun screening travellers entering the country.
The country’s neighbour to the west, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has had incidents of Monkeypox since the country’s first case was discovered back in 1970.
This year alone, the country has recorded over 1200 cases of monkeypox, with 57 people succumbing to the disease.
According to the WHO, there are so far around 250 cases of monkeypox reported in non-endemic countries around the world. It also reports that due to the disease’s similarity with Smallpox, a number of countries have begun stockpiling vaccines in a bid to deal with potential outbreaks. –Reporting by Isaac Lukando, SABC, Dar es Salaam
