Maputo — The Mozambican government says it is prepared with financial, human and material resources to face monkey pox, a disease that has already been detected in several countries, including neighboring South Africa.

"Although monkey pox is an endemic disease in some countries of Central and West Africa, there is still no cause for alarm, because the level of transmission is very low compared to other diseases", said the Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, in an interview with AIM on Saturday, on the sidelines of the ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of Mozambican independence.

Tiago guaranteed that the health authorities will continue to monitor monkey pox, just like any other disease.

"The country is already prepared to diagnose monkey pox. The way the disease is spread is already known to health professionals. We already had suspected cases, we did the testing and no case of monkey pox was confirmed in Mozambique", he explained.

"Despite this, we will increase our monitoring and surveillance capacity so that when it occurs, we will be prepared to notify in a timely manner", he added.

Recently, South Africa notified a case of monkey pox. Since diseases in South Africa are very likely to spread to Mozambique, this case has raised the level of alert.

Monkey pox is rare and is not easily spread. The usual mechanism for infection is intimate person-to-person contact.

Regarding polio, cases of which were recently detected in Mozambique and neighboring Malawi, the minister said "the health authorities conducted the 1st and 2nd round of vaccination in the central and northern provinces, and next month the 3rd and 4th rounds will start, involving health workers from all over the country."

"With these vaccination rounds. the polio problem in our country will be solved", the minister stressed.