With dense ties to West Africa, Morocco now has its first Mpox case, identified in the tourism city of Marrakech. This marks the first case in North Africa, prompting an immediate activation of emergency protocols and a damage-control communication strategy coming from Rabat that seeks to appease concerns and calls for calm. Among the actions taken by Morocco’s public health authorities has been to speed up contact tracing to prevent contagion.
Morocco is now the 15th African nation to report Mpox, after it originated from Central and East Africa. Africa CDC says in this outbreak, the Clade 1 variant of Mpox, carries a 3.6% fatality rate, making it especially dangerous for vulnerable groups like children.
So far, Africa has more than 26,000 reported cases, 5,700 are confirmed and 724 people died from the disease so far.
In addition to contact tracing, the Moroccan authorities have opted to postpone a major international public health event, originally scheduled for November. The 4th International Conference on Public Health, which would have been a platform for global health experts to discuss pressing health issues, has been pushed indefinitely until the situation is under control.
