NAIROBI, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ministry of Health on Friday confirmed a fifth case of mpox in the country as it intensifies surveillance to help curb the spread of the highly infectious viral disease.
Deborah Barasa, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, said the latest case was detected in the coastal city of Mombasa, involving a 29-year-old woman with no recent history of travel.
The woman is the spouse of the fourth confirmed case, who is being treated at a health facility in Nakuru, northwest Kenya, Barasa said.
She said the latest case is in isolation at a coastal health facility's mpox isolation center, while 33 contacts remain under close observation.
"The patient has no recent travel history to a country reporting mpox cases. Her spouse recently travelled to Rwanda, returning on Aug. 14," Barasa said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
So far, Kenya has received 124 samples for mpox testing, and of those, 110 have tested negative, nine are under analysis, and five cases have confirmed positive for mpox, the official said.
Out of the five confirmed cases, two have fully recovered while three remain in isolation and are responding positively to treatment, Barasa said.
She said Kenya's health care facilities are fully prepared to diagnose and treat mpox, and people don't need to panic if they contract the disease.
Kenya has so far screened 687,233 travelers at its 26 ports of entry across the country and has also issued hotline numbers for people to report cases to health officials.
The East African nation declared the first mpox case on July 31, involving a driver who traveled from Uganda to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa and then continued to Rwanda via Tanzania through Taita Taveta in southeastern Kenya through a one-stop border point.
On Aug. 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern and called for a coordinated international response.
The WHO declaration came after the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of continental security. ■