Russian human welfare watchdog Rospotrebnadzor will provide African countries with tests to diagnose the mpox virus, formerly known as monkeypox, the agency’s press service announced on Thursday.
Specialists from Rospotrebnadzor have also been conducting courses this week on the prevention and diagnosis of infections in the Republic of the Congo, with a particular focus on mpox, the statement added.
Congo has expressed interest in continued access to Russian diagnostic tests and strengthening collaboration with Rospotrebnadzor for epidemic response efforts. According to the statement, Rospotrebnadzor plans “to assist international partners …[and] will provide Russian monkeypox diagnostic tests to other African countries.”
The tests are currently being produced at multiple institutions, including the Vector Research Center in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia.
Rospotrebnadzor previously announced that the Vector Center had developed a vaccine to prevent mpox. The agency is also conducting scientific research focused on the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of the disease’s pathogens.
“In 2022, the Vector Center of Rospotrebnadzor registered a fourth-generation vaccine for the prevention of smallpox and other orthopoxvirus infections ‘OrthopoxVac’, which is a technologically advanced world-class preparation. This vaccine is intended, among other things, for the prevention of smallpox of monkeys, which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus,” the statement said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) has reported its first cases of Mpox Clade 2 since the multi-country outbreak began in 2022.
The recent surge in cases across multiple African nations led the WHO to declare mpox a global health emergency last week.
According to the organization, more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths have been reported globally so far this year, surpassing last year’s total. Initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion, and those afflicted develop distinctive skin lesions.
Mpox, initially identified in 1958 among laboratory monkeys in Denmark, was first documented in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, then Zaire), Liberia, and Sierra Leone.