No lockdown on the cards as SA bids to stave off monkeypox

The reassurance by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) comes amid rising concern that measures seen during the Covid-19 pandemic could make a return.

This includes travel bans and lockdowns that brought the country to a grinding halt, crippling economic recovery and growth.

While the country has not recorded any cases of the rare disease, government and health experts remain on high alert. 

“It’s not a virus that’s highly transmissible, it’s not like Covid-19 at all and we can get a head of the outbreak by contact tracing, monitoring and isolation of cases,” said NICD’s Jacqueline Weyer at a media briefing on Wednesday. 

“I think we’re all acutely aware of the economic and the social impact of such a decision and I think it’s always like a cost-benefit discussion that one needs to have. Even if we were to have one or two cases of monkeypox, our system would deal with that ad the coast would not be the same than closing the borders, even for one day. 

ALSO READ:

“We need to weigh up the risks and the benefits of the situation in an objective way and I think that’s what we’re seeing in the global community as well, it’s not just South Africa, no other countries have closed their borders or imposed travel embargoes on any country.” 

But Weyer added the situation would be assessed with new developments.  

The NICD’s Executive Director Adrian Puren shared the same sentiments. 

“We know that Johannesburg and South Africa is a hub of International travel so I think that is one of our risks, that there will likely be importation but we don’t force that, even though we may have cases, that we will see any establishment of this disease in South Africa. In other words, I don’t foresee monkeypox becoming endemic in South Africa,” said Puren.

Unlike Covid, experts don’t expect monkeypox to cause any disruptions to the country’s health system.