KUWAIT, Kuwait's medical facilities and disease prevention centers are well prepared to protect public health amid outbreaks of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact, in Africa and beyond, the health ministry said on Sunday. Healthcare personnel across these facilities are prepared to offer maximum protection depending on how developments unfold, said health ministry undersecretary Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi during a visit to Kuwait's Disease Control and Prevention Center. The center has ratcheted up active surveillance efforts in close rapport with the World Health Organization (WHO) in a bid to monitor the global healthcare situation, according to the ministry's assistant undersecretary for public health Dr. Al-Munther Al-Hasawi. WHO last week declared mpox a global healthcare emergency for the second time in as many years after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has since spread to neighboring countries. Source : Kuwait News Agency