Western Cape carries 15 of South Africa's 18 mpox cases

Fifteen of the eighteen mpox cases confirmed in South Africa are in the Western Cape, and most of those are in Cape Town, which the Western Cape health department has identified as a hotspot in the current outbreak.

The province has strengthened its response. Two exposure events are behind the cluster, and health teams are working through the contacts linked to both.

Ednah Baloyi of the provincial health department said the work now is follow-up, testing and treatment. Contacts of people who attended the two events are being traced, and anyone who tests positive is being treated promptly.

“We are working very hard to make sure that those two clusters are, or rather the contacts that were involved in that exposure event are followed up, tested, and treated timeously when they’re found to be Mpox positive,” Baloyi said.

How two events produced a cluster

Mpox spreads through close contact, which is why a single gathering can produce a run of infections rather than an isolated case.

Baloyi set out the mechanics plainly. One person in close contact with a group can pass the virus to many of them.

“There were two events that, exposure events that basically, you know, did lead to these Mpox cases,” she said. “So you would understand that Mpox is quite infectious. When you have one person that is in close contact with a group of people, it can actually result in quite a lot of cases.”

In both clusters, people who attended the events were exposed to a positive case, and the virus then spread among those present.

“So unfortunately, in these two clusters that we identified, there was a positive case, there were positive cases, and unfortunately, it led to the spread of the disease among those that attended those two events.”

What the province is doing

The department’s response turns on the contact list. Every person linked to the two exposure events is being followed up, offered a test, and treated if the result comes back positive. That is the standard public health play against a virus that moves through close contact, and it is the step that decides whether a cluster stays a cluster.

The department has not released the locations of the two events or the number of contacts still being traced.

What this means for the people of Cape Town

The practical effect sits with anyone who attended either event, or who lives with or cares for someone who did. The advice from the department is to cooperate with the tracing teams, to test if asked, and to seek care early rather than wait.

For the wider city, the position is contained for now. Fifteen cases in one province is a cluster under investigation, not a general outbreak, and the department’s tracing and treatment programme is the mechanism that keeps it that way. Mpox is treatable, and the people most at risk are those in close contact with a confirmed case.

Anyone who develops symptoms after attending a gathering where a case was later confirmed should contact a health facility rather than wait for the tracing team to reach them.

The Western Cape health department’s contact tracing and testing programme is continuing, and the results of those tests will determine whether the case count in the province rises further.

Source: eNCA, Mpox cases on the rise in the Western Cape