The World Health Organization, today, handed over PCR kits for testing and diagnosis of monkeypox to the Ministry of Health in Timor-Leste. With the handover, the country is now equipped to conduct 750 tests at the National Health Laboratory.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the monkeypox outbreak a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ (PHEIC) on 23 July 2022 calling for a coordinated response from all countries to curb the transmission of the disease.
“With the monkeypox outbreak being declared a PHEIC, we are in midst of two such emergencies at the same time, the other one being COVID-19. It is therefore important for a country to be test-ready,” said Dr Arvind Mathur, WHO representative to Timor-Leste. “We are pleased to equip the Ministry of Health and the National Health Laboratory with the PCR test kits. We are also continuously assisting the Ministry of Health in other preparedness response such as prevention, detection, treatment and contact tracing in case of a possible outbreak,” said Dr Mathur.
Minister of Health dr. Odete Maria Freitas Belo expressed her gratitude to the WHO for the timely handover of the testing kits. “Now that we have the testing kits, we must prepare a response plan for any possible outbreak,” she said at the handover event.
Over the past few months since monkeypox cases began surfacing in different parts of the globe, the MOH with support from WHO Timor-Leste has conducted six training sessions for staff at the points of entry like airport and land crossings and for healthcare providers including doctors, nurses and midwives from HNGV and referral hospitals. The WHO has also extended technical assistance for the development of preparedness and response plan, risk communication and national guidelines for prevention, detection, care and treatment of monkeypox.
Since 1 January 2022, monkeypox cases have been reported from 75 member states across all six WHO regions. As of 7 August 2022, a total of 27,814 laboratory confirmed cases and 11 deaths have been reported to the WHO.
For more information, contact:
Jyoti Shelar, Communications Consultant, WHO: shelarj@who.int; +67077728051