Thermal screening for Mpox is under way at the Lebombo Border Post with Mozambique in Komartipoort, Mpumalanga. The Border Management Authority (BMA) is screening travelers into South Africa in an effort to curb the spread of the infectious disease.
At least 16 cases of the disease have been confirmed in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng. Screening of travelers was in full swing. It’s a collaboration between the Border Management Authority and Emergency Services.
“We use is the thermal scan that we use to screen elevated temperatures for travelers that are coming into the country. This is a tool we have been using for over a decade, we have been using this during the world cup and we still using it now. This, we thought it’s important to make members of the public aware that this is not introduced to deal with the Mpox as it is now but it’s a tool that is used for all diseases. However, Mpox is one of those diseases that will have elevated temperatures,” says BMA Specialized Services Assistant Commissioner Murdock Ramathuba.
Mpumalanga is a gateway to Mozambique and the Kingdom of eSwatini. Hundreds of tourists are being cleared on the Lebombo Border Post with Mozambique daily. But tourists are not complaining about the additional traveling time at the border.
“I am in the queue to have my passport stamped as I am going to South Africa. I don’t know anything about this disease and it’s the first time I hear of it,” a tourist says.
“The tests they conduct at the borders I think it’s a good thing taking precautions make sure it doesn’t transfer the Mpox to other people,” another tourist says.
Mpumalanga Health MEC Sasekani Manzini is confident of the province’s state of readiness to deal with the Mpox disease.
“As a department, we are ready for the Mpox and indeed we have gathered a lot of experience during COVID in terms of how we respond and these teams in terms of checking patients, training our healthcare workers, NHLF in terms of making sure the patients are transported as and when there is a case we are suspecting. Of course, we are using our primary healthcare which is or clinics in terms of educating our people, our teams in terms of your Cheka Impilo campaign,” says Manzini.
Thus far no traveler has been tested positive to Mpox at the Lebombo Port of Entry.
