KIGALI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan Ministry of Health on Friday launched a national monkeypox preparedness and response plan, following the spread of the diseases in some parts of the world.
The plan provides a great foundation to detect and effectively respond to an outbreak of monkeypox, according to the Ministry of Health.
"Even though we have not yet recorded a case in Rwanda, previous pandemics have taught us that it is important to activate preparedness and response plans to epidemics before they break out," said Tharcisse Mpunga, minister of state in the Rwandan Ministry of Health in charge of Primary Healthcare at the launch of the plan in the Rwandan capital city Kigali.
He added that there is an urgent need to increase surveillance after the disease spread to other parts of the world including Rwanda's immediate neighbor Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Mpunga said that Rwanda is working closely with partners to monitor the evolving situation of the monkeypox outbreak in different parts of the world.
"There is no room to be complacent as we in the African region are susceptible. This is why we are committed to working with Rwanda to bolster monkeypox surveillance and operational readiness," said Lyndah Makayotto, head of emergencies at World Health Organization (WHO) Rwanda office, at the launch.
The national monkeypox preparedness and response plan contains the surveillance, case management, vaccination and risk communication.
Monkeypox, according to WHO, is a viral disease that can spread from animals to humans but can also spread between people through close contact with an infected person, and /or objects including clothes and bedsheets as well as droplets.
Symptoms typically include skin rash or lesions, fever, intense headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes and last from two to four weeks.
In many patients, the symptoms clear up on their own but severe cases and even death can occur. The case fatality ratio, or the percent of people dying compared to those diagnosed, is around 3-6 percent, according to WHO.
Monkeypox was first detected in humans in 1970 in the African region and since then most cases have been reported in rural and rainforest areas.
WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on July 23.
In the early stages of the outbreak, the European region reported the largest number of infections, but in the past weeks the Americas accounted for about 60.3 percent of the new cases worldwide against Europe's 38.7 percent.
As of Monday, ten countries had reported the highest cumulative number of cases globally. These were the U.S., Spain, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Peru and Portugal. Together, these countries accounted for 88.9 percent of the cases reported globally. ■