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The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 208 fatalities and over 99,000 mpox cases across 116 nations between January 2022 and June 2024. Health experts are also scheduled to convene and consider raising the UN agency’s highest alert.
If the WHO announces a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), it would mark the second instance for mpox since the virus spread globally in 2022.
More transmissible mpox strain emerges
The current mpox outbreak in Africa, which the continent’s health agency declared an emergency on Tuesday, is being propelled by a novel, more transmissible strain of the virus. This new strain has been crossing borders from its epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to other African countries, alarming health experts.
What is mpox?
The infectious disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first identified in humans in the DRC in 1970. There are two subtypes of the virus: clade I and clade II. The more lethal clade I has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for decades, while the less severe clade II has been endemic in parts of West Africa. Until recently, outbreaks were primarily caused by people contracting the virus from infected animals, such as rodents, through activities like consuming bushmeat. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and large boil-like skin lesions.
In May 2022, a new, less deadly strain called clade IIb spread worldwide, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men. The WHO declared a PHEIC in July 2022, which lasted until May 2023. However, the current surge is driven by the deadlier clade I and its new mutated variant, clade Ib, first detected among sex workers in the remote mining town of Kamituga in the DRC’s South Kivu province in September 2023.
Unlike previous outbreaks in the DRC, the new strain has been partly transmitted through sexual contact, including between heterosexuals, and non-sexual contact between people, such as children playing together at school.
Clade Ib causes death in approximately 3.6 percent of cases, with infants and children being more vulnerable, according to the WHO. It also causes more severe disease than clade II. Nearly all of the DRC’s provinces are now affected by either clade I or clade Ib, as reported by Jean Claude Udahemuka, a researcher at the University of Rwanda studying the outbreak.
More mpox cases were reported in the first half of this year than in all of 2023, according to WHO figures. Between January 2022 and August 4, the Africa CDC reported 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa, with the majority of recent cases occurring in the DRC. Over the last month, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda all reported their first-ever mpox cases, with clade Ib detected in all four countries, although no deaths have been reported, according to the WHO.
Lack of vaccine equity fuels cases
During the global spread of mpox in 2022, vaccines were quickly deployed in wealthier regions such as Europe and North America, helping to control the outbreak. However, the available vaccines have largely not been made available in the African countries most affected by mpox.
On Tuesday, Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya announced an agreement with the European Union and pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic to supply and distribute 200,000 mpox vaccine doses across the continent. Kaseya acknowledged that the doses of Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine, which requires two shots per person, would not be sufficient. However, there is a future plan to secure 10 million vaccine doses for Africa. Kaseya also emphasized that if Africa had received the necessary vaccine doses and support earlier, case numbers would not be as high as they are now.
If the WHO announces a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), it would mark the second instance for mpox since the virus spread globally in 2022.
More transmissible mpox strain emerges
The current mpox outbreak in Africa, which the continent’s health agency declared an emergency on Tuesday, is being propelled by a novel, more transmissible strain of the virus. This new strain has been crossing borders from its epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to other African countries, alarming health experts.
What is mpox?
The infectious disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first identified in humans in the DRC in 1970. There are two subtypes of the virus: clade I and clade II. The more lethal clade I has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for decades, while the less severe clade II has been endemic in parts of West Africa. Until recently, outbreaks were primarily caused by people contracting the virus from infected animals, such as rodents, through activities like consuming bushmeat. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and large boil-like skin lesions.
In May 2022, a new, less deadly strain called clade IIb spread worldwide, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men. The WHO declared a PHEIC in July 2022, which lasted until May 2023. However, the current surge is driven by the deadlier clade I and its new mutated variant, clade Ib, first detected among sex workers in the remote mining town of Kamituga in the DRC’s South Kivu province in September 2023.
Unlike previous outbreaks in the DRC, the new strain has been partly transmitted through sexual contact, including between heterosexuals, and non-sexual contact between people, such as children playing together at school.
Clade Ib causes death in approximately 3.6 percent of cases, with infants and children being more vulnerable, according to the WHO. It also causes more severe disease than clade II. Nearly all of the DRC’s provinces are now affected by either clade I or clade Ib, as reported by Jean Claude Udahemuka, a researcher at the University of Rwanda studying the outbreak.
More mpox cases were reported in the first half of this year than in all of 2023, according to WHO figures. Between January 2022 and August 4, the Africa CDC reported 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa, with the majority of recent cases occurring in the DRC. Over the last month, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda all reported their first-ever mpox cases, with clade Ib detected in all four countries, although no deaths have been reported, according to the WHO.
Lack of vaccine equity fuels cases
During the global spread of mpox in 2022, vaccines were quickly deployed in wealthier regions such as Europe and North America, helping to control the outbreak. However, the available vaccines have largely not been made available in the African countries most affected by mpox.
On Tuesday, Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya announced an agreement with the European Union and pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic to supply and distribute 200,000 mpox vaccine doses across the continent. Kaseya acknowledged that the doses of Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine, which requires two shots per person, would not be sufficient. However, there is a future plan to secure 10 million vaccine doses for Africa. Kaseya also emphasized that if Africa had received the necessary vaccine doses and support earlier, case numbers would not be as high as they are now.
