Two years since a worldwide outbreak, a new variation of the virus formerly known as monkeypox, now named mpox has been detected in the DR Congo.
Mpox has also surfaced in several neighbouring countries thereby heightening concerns about the potential spread across Africa.
Deadlier and more transmissible than previous forms, the mpox strain surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as the Clade Ib subclade, is spread person-to-person.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday, that it was considering convening an expert committee to advice on whether to declare an international emergency, as it did during the global mpox outbreak in 2022.
The Clade Ib strain causes skin rashes across the whole body, unlike other strains where lesions and rashes were usually limited to the mouth, face, and genitals.
The African Union health agency, Africa CDC, registered 14,479 confirmed and suspected cases of the strain and 455 deaths in DRC as of August 3, representing a mortality rate of around three percent.
But researchers in the vast Central African nation say the mortality rate from the strain can be as much as 10 percent among children.
The Congolese government acknowledged last month an “exponential increase” in cases.
“The disease has been seen in the displacement camps around Goma in North Kivu where the extreme population density makes the situation very critical,” Louis Albert Massing, medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in DRC said.
“The risks of explosion are real given the enormous population movements in the conflict-ridden region, which borders several countries,” he added.
Already, the Clade Ib strain has jumped national borders in the last two weeks as cases have been reported in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Kenya, Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for mpox, told AFP.
Authorities in the four countries have confirmed mpox cases, Burundi in particular has reported 127 cases without specifying the strain.
The eight-member East African Community (EAC) has urged governments to educate their citizens on how to protect themselves and prevent the spread of the disease.
Lewis from the WHO, said it was the first time that the four countries lying to the east of DRC had reported mpox cases.
“Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda are countries that don’t have this disease in an endemic way, that means it’s an extension of the outbreak which is raging in the DRC and in Central Africa generally,” she said.
Africa CDC has also reported 35 suspected and confirmed cases, including two deaths, in Cameroon, 146 cases, including one death, in Congo Brazzaville, 227 cases in the Central African Republic, 24 in Nigeria, five in Liberia, and four cases in Ghana.
In West Africa, Ivory Coast recently reported six confirmed non-fatal cases, five of which were in the economic capital Abidjan, without specifying the strain.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the DRC, then called Zaire.
It has since been mainly limited to certain West and Central African nations. Humans mainly get infected from infected animals, such as when eating bush meat.
In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men. That spike was driven by a new subtype, dubbed Clade II, which took over from Clade I.
Around 140 people died out of about 90,000 cases across 111 countries.
The outbreak is “still raging”, Lewis said, including in South Africa, which has seen 24 cases, three of which were fatal, but she added it was “controlled” and spreading less.
Mpox remains a global health threat, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned in early July.
Countries are now able to detect cases, Lewis said, pointing to a system of surveillance, laboratories, and communication with affected areas.
It is hard to know if there has been “a substantial rise” in cases, or whether “it’s just a matter of increased awareness”, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, who confirmed concern over the Clade Ib strain.
“There are some vaccines that are licensed that can be used for mpox,” she said while stating that negotiations between the WHO and affected countries were underway to authorise the use of one vaccine.
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