Since the United Nations World Health Organization said last week that a surge in virus cases in Africa had caused an international health emergency, Central Asian countries have been preparing MPOX test kits and taking other precautions.
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are among the countries that have said they have not reported any suspected cases of the virus in the region. Both countries are following the advice of the WHO, which has called for a coordinated international response to prevent the spread of the disease. The UN health agency also declared a global health emergency due to MPOX in 2022, when cases were reported around the world before declining.
Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Health said on Monday it was stepping up hygiene and quarantine measures at airports, train stations and border crossings, with a focus on people entering the country from countries where cases of MPOX have been reported.
“Currently, sanitary and quarantine stations are equipped with thermal imaging devices and non-contact thermometers to detect feverish people in a timely manner,” the health ministry said, adding that the WHO has assisted Kyrgyzstan in providing 3,000 PCR tests to detect MPOX in 2022. Around 500 tests were available as of Monday, the health ministry said, and efforts were underway to procure more tests.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have also implemented similar preventive measures.
Kazakhstan's Deputy Health Minister Timur Sultangaziev said that methods for detecting MPOX virus infections are based on the COVID-19 pandemic and treatment guidelines have been developed, Kazinform News Agency reported.
Uzbekistan's health authorities said they plan to impose a 21-day medical observation period on all people who have come into contact with patients with MPOX. Like other Central Asian countries, the country plans to increase its stockpile of test kits for the virus. Medical professionals are also being trained on how to deal with the disease.
Mpox has been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for more than a decade, with the number of cases increasing each year, according to the WHO. The number of reported cases so far this year has exceeded last year's total, with more than 15,000 cases and at least 500 deaths, according to the WHO. Other African countries have reported much smaller numbers of cases.
The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being driven by two lineages: one that mainly affects children and a new lineage that “mainly affects adults, spreads rapidly and is sustained by transmission mainly linked to sexual contact and amplified in networks linked to, but not exclusively, commercial sex activities and sex workers,” the WHO said.
Symptoms of Mpox include fever, skin rash, lesions, and chills. Most treatments are aimed at relieving symptoms. The disease can be spread through close contact with infected animals and people.
