The Southern African Development Community (SADC) convened a virtual meeting of Ministers of Health on 4 September 2024 to assess the Mpox epidemiological outlook and develop a coordinated regional response. The Ministers discussed ways to strengthen public health surveillance at national level and on how cross-border disease surveillance should be coordinated to improve the rate of detection, strengthen prevention, and limit the spread of Mpox.
Honourable Dr. Douglas Mombeshora, Minister of Health and Childcare for the Republic of Zimbabwe and Chairperson of the SADC Ministerial Committee on Health urged the region to use lessons learnt from previous outbreaks to mitigate against current and future outbreaks. He said early outbreak response as a region using combined efforts as a block is very critical.
Honourable Dr. Mombeshora said early regional outbreak response mechanism through combined efforts remains very critical and encouraged Member States to mobilise the much needed financial and human resources for the immediate response to Mpox and other future outbreaks. Honourable Dr. Mombeshora urged SADC Member States to deploy experts to respond to the affected countries to reduce the spread of the Mpox outbreak to other countries.
For her part, Ms. Angele Makombo N’tumba, SADC Deputy Executive Secretary for Regional Integration underscored that the Mpox outbreak requires a multisectoral and coordinated response from different sectors including those responsible for animal health programmes, disaster risk reduction, trade, transport, immigration and port health and the community at large. She said no Member State can singlehandedly manage the enormous challenge of containing the spread of Mpox without strong regional collaboration on cross-border surveillance.
Ms. Makombo N’tumba noted that while the increase in trade between SADC countries signals improved economic cooperation between Member States, the intense movements of people, goods and services are often a strong factor in cross-border transmission of diseases.
She urged all Member States including those with no Mpox outbreaks at present to intensify their public health surveillance and ensure that conditions that are likely to fuel an outbreak are eliminated through strong mitigation measures. She further urged them to continue the implementation of policies that support the building of stronger healthcare systems by focusing on high-value healthcare investments and consistent monitoring of the health systems performance.
During the meeting, the Ministers noted the Mpox situation in the region and urged Member States to develop and implement Multisectoral National Mpox response plans, integrating the One Health Approach which encourages collaborative efforts of many experts working across human, animal, and environmental health to improve the health of people and animals.
The Ministers urged Member States to strengthen regional collaboration on cross-border outbreak risk assessment and public health surveillance and information sharing and preventive measures and to increase mobilisation of domestic resources including the active involvement of the private sector.
The Ministers further urged Member States to strengthen Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) and Infection Prevention and Control Measures, to prioritise a phased approach in rolling out vaccinations giving priority to children and those most at risk, ensure continuity of essential services whilst responding to Mpox and to invest in scientific research to develop evidence-based strategies to respond to Mpox.
The Ministers directed the Secretariat to work in collaboration with technical and financial partners to provide essential support to Member States that are currently experiencing the Mpox outbreaks, convene regular meetings of the multisectoral technical committee on the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Health, to assess and monitor the Mpox situation and report to the sectoral committee of Ministers of Health and requested International Cooperating Partners (ICPs) to mobilise resources, including vaccines and diagnostics for a robust regional response.
In their contributions, Dr Matshediso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Director and Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) expressed their support and reiterated their commitment to continue working with SADC towards the eradication of Mpox.
The WHO and the Africa CDC have recently declared mpox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHIEC) and a public health emergency of continental security (PHECS) respectively. The meeting of the SADC Ministers of Health was convened following the directive of the SADC Heads of State and Government at the 44th Summit held in Harare, Republic of Zimbabwe on 17 August 2024 for the Secretariat to convene an urgent meeting of the Ministers of Health to assess the impact of Mpox and facilitate coordinated regional response to control the spread of the disease.
