RE: MPox outbreak Africa14 Aug 2024 20:39
In the Q-R live of OMS : "We need stronger surveillance in countries first to be on the outlook for Mpox and other current outbreaks that are happening with measles for example, chickenpox. So we need strong surveillance and rgood diagnostics. Our diagnostics teams are working to better understand the use of the current pcr tests and other tests that are out there to distinguish between Cade1, cade 2 and so there's some improvement that's needed certainly there. The other thing is of course access to thes tests. We saw during covid a lack of access especially in low and middle income countries and we're seeing that here as well so part of the work that we are doing is not just trying to look at access to vaccines and therapeutics but also access to diagnostics so across the spectrum of having stronger surveillance where we have surveillance making sure that we have good contact tracing so when we identify a case we look at the exposures of others in the context so that we could prevent the onward spread making sure that we have accurate, reliable, affordable diagnostics and making sure that those are accessible in countries working with manufacturers of diagnostics to make sure that those reach the countries in need if they are requests for diagnostics from contries that is something that we need to be aware of we are aware of several and we are looking at how we can get those diagnostics into that countries"
"I think the challenge of testing is significant especially in the RDC where perhaps less than 30% of cases and it has increasedover time because of some investment from the fig that was declared in 2022 and support from partners put at national and non-governmental organization and I'm aware that it was actually presented at meeting that for instance has been deployed to the RDC to improve diagnosis so members emphasize need for us to globeall health authorities to invest in improving diagnosis especially in the RDC where cases are not being tested and that is a significant challenge that needs to be addressed because ultimately we are working blindly if we are not able to test all suspected cases and that also demands research and development to develop more innovative, more cost effective and more accurate point of care diagnostics that can be deployed to RDC because one of the challenges of diagnostics in the RDC for instance is is the people who live in and develop Mpox in remote areas where they son't have access to the city centers where these diagnostics labs are situated so there's a need to decentralize and look for more cost effective point of care diagnostics that can be applied to improve the test rates for cases of mpox in various parts of Africa."
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