Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency after confirming a second case of mpox within four days, health officials announced on Monday, reports AP.
According to the health ministry, neither of the cases had any recent contact with infected animals or individuals. The first case was linked to recent travel, confined to Lungi, an airport town in the northern Port Loko District, between December 26 and January 6. Both patients are being treated in a hospital in Freetown, the capital.
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Mpox, also called monkeypox, was first identified in 1958 during outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease among monkeys. Historically, most human cases occurred in central and West Africa, typically among people in close contact with infected animals.
In 2022, mpox was confirmed to spread via sexual transmission for the first time, leading to outbreaks in over 70 countries that had not previously reported the virus. The Congo has been the hardest hit, accounting for most of the estimated 43,000 suspected cases and 1,000 deaths in Africa this year.
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Sierra Leone was also at the heart of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the deadliest in history. The outbreak, which mainly affected West Africa, claimed nearly 4,000 lives in Sierra Leone alone, out of a global total of over 11,000. The country lost 7% of its healthcare workforce during that crisis.