Uganda confirms mpox case in prison

A clinician administers the mpox vaccine to a member of the National Institute of Public Health. [Aubin Mukoni, AFP]

Uganda on Wednesday confirmed a prison inmate has contracted mpox in a central area that is the epicentre of the outbreak in the East African country.

"We recorded one confirmed case of mpox in one of our prisons and the patient has been isolated and containment measures have been put in place," Uganda Prisons spokesman Frank Baine told AFP.

He said the male inmate could have contracted the disease before he was remanded in the prison in the town of Nakasongola in central Uganda.

Twenty-one mpox cases have been reported in the Nakasongola area out of a total of 41 nationwide as of October 7, according to the health ministry.

More than 34,000 cases have been recorded in 16 countries in Africa since the new epidemic broke out, the African Union's health watchdog, Africa CDC, said earlier this month.

Most of the cases are in Uganda's western neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there have been 988 deaths, according to the health minister.

The disease, originally named monkeypox, spreads through close physical contact with infected people or animals, causing fever, muscle pains and painful skin lesions.

First discovered in a monkey in 1958, the disease is related to, but far less severe than, the deadly smallpox virus which was eradicated in 1980.