Fourth case of monkeypox confirmed in SA

In a statement released on Monday, spokesperson Foster Mohale says the patient is a 28-year-old male from the Western Cape.

He travelled to Spain and returned to South Africa in the second week of August.

"A polymerase chain reaction test was performed in a private pathology laboratory and the samples were submitted to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases for sequencing analysis. Public health response measures to prevent the spread of the infection, including contact tracing have been instituted," says Mohale.

This brings the country's laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases to four.

The three previous cases were reported in Gauteng, Western Cape and Limpopo.

All the cases were reported in males aged 30, 32 and 42 years.

Mohale says the three have since completed the self-isolation and monitoring period without reporting further symptoms and health complications.

Monkeypox is usually a mild disease manifesting as blisters on the skin, it is usually mild and self-limiting with a fatality rate of 1%.

The disease has previously been reported in African countries such as Nigeria, DRC, CA Republic, and Ghana in the early 2000s.

The current outbreak is dominated by high numbers in European countries such as Spain, Germany, Portugal, France as well as the UK. The are other reported cases in USA and Canada.

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