Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, [email protected]
KWEKWE General Hospital acting medical superintendent, Dr Bruce Mhondiwa has allayed fears that the mining might have recorded a case of Mpox after the institution reportedly attended to a patient with similar symptoms.
Social media platforms were awash with reports that Kwekwe had recorded its first case of Mpox after a middle aged man was spotted at the hospital seeking medication.
Dr Mhondiwa however confirmed his institution having attended to such a person but tests have since proven it’s not Mpox.
I can confirm that we attended to a male patient whose condition was similar to Mpox. We treated it as a suspected case and we treated it with all the precautionary measures in mind including isolation,” said Dr Mhondiwa.
He said the patient was in isolation until the release of his results which proved it was not Mpox.
“We sent samples to our national laboratory and the results came back negative. There is therefore no need for residents to panic as we are on high alert of the disease which is currently on the rise in African countries,” said Dr Mhondiwa.
He said the patient has since been discharged.
“We gave him medication and encouraged the family to monitor him during his two week incubation period,” he said.
The recent outbreak of the Mpox virus in various African countries, including non-endemic States, has jolted the Zimbabwean government into action, with authorities establishing strong disease surveillance systems.
Mpox (formerly called monkey pox) is a rare viral infection that is endemic to Central and West Africa.
It spreads through close contact with people, animals or material infected with the virus.
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