A man from Chiradzulu district died on Thursday, 9th June after showing Monkey-Pox-like symptoms. His death forced the ministry of health to carry out tests to prove whether the country has been affected by the virus that continues to spread in other countries.

Spokesperson for the ministry, Adrian Chikumbe told Zodiak Online, that the samples were first sent to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre and later to the public health laboratory in Lilongwe for validation.

Chikumbe added by saying that the ministry is not taking any chances but doing all it can to prevent spillage of the disease to Malawi.

“Initial results have indicated that it is not Monkey-pox, we want to detect it at the earliest time possible.

“If we get a case, it will be an initial case, that is why we need to crosscheck, apart from the tests, we are also trying to see if this person traveled to any of the countries that have Monkey-Pox but that is not the case and at the moment, we still don’t have Monkey-Pox,” said Chikumbe.

In reaction, Health Expert Maureen Chirwa advised the Ministry of Health not to relax but tighten its surveillance system.

Chirwa said, “We’ve had the lashes for a long time and we should not raise alarm unnecessarily but keep on observing what is happening, good enough Malawi system is very strong in doing surveillance and we encourage the public to remain calm”.

World Health Organization is indicating that as of 13th May, Monkey-pox had spread to 23-member states that are not endemic to Monkey-pox Virus.