By URN
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has resolved to allow mild cases of mpox to be treated from home.
While the government has previously been strictly quarantining all cases of the viral disease at health facilities across the country, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has said they have approved new guidelines allowing those who are not very badly off to stay at home. As of yesterday, Aceng says seven hundred and seventy positive cases were being treated at different centres.
Uganda recorded the first Mpox case six months ago and statistics by the Ministry show a cumulative 2,896 people have since tested positive for the disease that causes among others painful lesions on the body of the sufferers including in their private parts.
Of these, nineteen have died and Aceng says those that succumbed had been battling other pre-existing health conditions including Tuberculosis, HIV and Sickle cell anemia.
Aceng says with homecare guidelines now approved, healthcare workers will now be assessing patients and allowing those who are fit for treatment from home to stay there.
Meanwhile, while this is happening, there has also been ongoing vaccination of sex workers in hot spot areas in Kampala including Kawempe and Makindye divisions.
According to a report by the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), more than nine thousand sex workers had been vaccinated by Thursday last week. The country had received ten thousand doses of the vaccine that is meant to help population-level immunity and interrupt ongoing transmission, according to experts.
There is currently no definite treatment for Mpox. Health workers only manage symptoms in sufferers.
