Sierra Leone has announced its first confirmed case of mpox since the World Health Organization (WHO) elevated the most serious alert level for the potentially fatal virus disease last year.
According to the National Public Health Agency, the patient is a 27-year-old man from the Western Zone’s rural district, near the capital, Freetown.
“Health teams are actively tracing and investigating to identify potentially exposed persons and to prevent further spread,” the agency announced in a social media post.
The confirmed case was discovered on January 10, but health officials have not identified the variation afflicting the patient.
Mpox, caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox, is characterized by a high temperature and vesicular skin sores. The disease was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970 and was first limited to a dozen African countries before spreading more extensively in 2022, even to previously uninfected areas. The World Health Organization declared the disease’s highest alert level in 2024.
Sierra Leonean health authorities responded quickly and implemented containment measures. The infected patient has been kept in isolation, and contacts will be monitored for 21 days.
Surveillance efforts have been intensified in all regions visited by the patient. A public awareness campaign has been initiated, and health workers are being outfitted with protective gear and taught in preventative tactics to help limit the spread.
Sierra Leone was formerly one of the hardest hit countries during the Ebola epidemic, which killed over 4,000 people, including nearly 7% of the country’s health staff, between 2014 and 2016.
