Category: Monkey Pox

A fast-spreading mpox outbreak in Africa was declared a continent-wide public health emergency, as the regions main health advisory body invoked this power for the first time as it moved to marshal resources.

The declaration will prompt countries in the region to share timely information on mpoxs spread with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, helping it to better tap financial aid, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Addis Ababa-based agency, said on Tuesday.

Today I commit to you that African citizens will lead this fight with every resource at our disposal, he told a virtual press briefing. Well work with government, international partners and local communities to ensure that every African, from the bustling cities to the remote area, is protected.

A mutated mpox strain has spread to at least six African countries, infecting about 15,000 people and killing more than 500 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year alone. The variant was first reported in the DRC less than 12 months ago.

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While mpox vaccines are available, few have made their way to Africathe only continent where the disease is endemic. At about $100 per dose, the vaccines are currently very expensive, Kaseya has previously said. Africa will need about $4 billion to fight mpox, money that we are confident that we can leverage, he said.

About 200,000 doses will begin to be distributed in countries that are the most severely affected in the next two weeks, and work is under way to secure more than 10 million shots that it is expected the continent will ultimately need, according to Kaseya.

The move by the Africa CDC came a day before a panel of advisers convened by the World Health Organization is due to meet to help determine whether the deadly outbreak constitutes an international emergency.

Read More: What It Really Feels Like to Have Monkeypox

The WHO last declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern in May 2022 when cases of a milder strain erupted globally, but Africa didnt get appropriate support, Kaseya said. When the agency lowered its alert level a year later, cases in Africa continued to increase and today we are facing the consequence of no assistance, he said.

Africa CDC was only given the mandate to call regional public health emergencies in 2023, even as WHO warned it could also trigger travel and trade restrictions that would isolate the continent. Still, there is no reason to close borders or stop trading, Kaseya said.

What we were doing before didnt work, he said. We call upon our international partners to take this mpox as an opportunity to act differently and to work closely with African CDC and African countries to provide appropriate support to affected people.

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Mpox Is Officially a Health Emergency in Africa - TIME

A new and deadlier version of mpox is spreading internationally. In recent months, cases and deaths were being detected only in parts of central and east Africa, but on Thursday, Sweden confirmed its first case. The announcement comes just one day after the World Health Organization declared mpox an international public health emergency for the second time in two years.

The risk to the general public in the US is very low, the Department of Health and Human Services stated in the wake of the World Health Organizations announcement.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is an infectious disease closely related to but much less severe than smallpox, and is suspected to originate in African rodents and non-human primates. Mpox spreads through close contact with an infected person, including from sexual and skin-to-skin-contact. Pregnant people can also pass the virus to their child during pregnancy and after birth. The most common symptom of mpox is a blister-like rash that typically lasts for two to four weeks. Other symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, cough, and sore throat.

For decades, mpox has caused sporadic cases and outbreaks in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and several other African countries. But in May 2022, countries outside of Africa, including many that had never dealt with mpox, suddenly started recording cases. That July, the World Health Organization declared the pandemic a public health emergency of international concern for the first time. In just one year, more than 100 countries had recorded nearly 90,000 mpox cases and over 150 deaths.

Fortunately, public health agencies around the world acted quickly to improve disease surveillance efforts, increasing awareness among high-risk populations, particularly men who have sex with men, and encouraging safe sex practices. In the US and Europe, where there were just over 30,000 and 25,000 mpox cases respectively between May 2022 and May 2023; officials also disseminated over a million vaccine doses. Consequently, mpox transmission in most countries quickly dwindled.

In May 2023, the World Health Organization lifted the emergency status and although at the time the public health body no longer considered mpox an international health emergency, countries around the world continued to report cases but much fewer than at the height of the epidemic. In June 2024, there were 175 cases reported across North, Central, and South America; 100 cases were reported in Europe, and 11 cases were reported in Southeast Asian countries, according to a situation report published by the World Health Organization.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa; however, the outbreak continued largely unabated. As of May 2024, there have been 7,851 mpox cases and 384 deaths reported in the country. On Tuesday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared mpox a continent-wide public health emergency.

The version of the virus circulating in the DRC was different than the one that spread globally. There are two main strains of mpox: clade I, which causes more severe illness and has historically been confined to central Africa, and clade II, which has historically caused infections in west Africa. Clade II was the version that spread to over 100 countries in 2022 and 2023. But clade I was spreading in the DRC. And it is clade I that has now started spreading out of the DRC into four countries in east Africa Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda and now Sweden.

Vox diligently covered the outbreak of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, back in 2022. Check out our previous work here:

The new international spread of mpox clade I is spurring concerns that a deadlier mpox pandemic might be on the horizon and triggered the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to designate the ongoing mpox outbreaks as health emergencies.

Africa CDC is the public health agency of the African Union, which represents 55 African states. It is the first time the agency has designated any outbreak a continental emergency. Other African countries are also facing resurging mpox outbreaks caused by the clade II virus. In May, there were a total of 465 mpox cases documented across all African countries and in June there were 567, a 22 percent increase.

We declare today this public health emergency of continental security to mobilize our institutions, our collective will, and our resources to act swiftly and decisively, said Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya in a press briefing Tuesday.

Outbreak response efforts in the DRC and other African countries have once again been hamstrung by the same challenges health officials faced during previous outbreaks and pandemics, including Covid: a lack of global solidarity and an unwillingness to share life-saving resources. While vaccine doses were rapidly disseminated in the US and Europe in 2022, vaccines are only now starting to trickle into the DRC. But even so, only a couple hundred thousand vaccines will be available for a population of more than 100 million people.

Slowly, national governments and multinational organizations such as the African Union are working to improve domestic public health infrastructure and technical capacity and to reduce dependency on donor countries. While Africa CDCs unprecedented move to designate the mpox outbreaks a regional health emergency signals a continuation of these efforts, it is unclear if the designation will help spur the rapid influx of resources needed to respond to the mpox outbreaks.

Mpox was first discovered in 1958 in a colony of monkeys in a research facility in Denmark, and the first case of mpox in a human a nine-month-old infant was not documented until 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers and physicians could not determine exactly how the infant became infected; however, close contact with an infected monkey may have caused the infection. Small rodents, monkeys, and mammals can pass the virus on to humans but outbreaks typically take off when humans infect each other.

In 2005, additional mpox cases in humans were recorded in the DRC, and thousands of suspected cases have been reported every year since then. Since 2017, mpox has also caused frequent infections in Nigeria.

Although mpox has been around for a long time, there are still many unknowns about how the virus spreads and why it suddenly spread around the world in 2022. What researchers do know is that the virus has been rapidly mutating in recent years.

Interestingly and maybe worryingly, while most genetic mutations have no effect at all, some can cause viruses to become deadlier or more effective at spreading. When geneticists compared the 2022 mpox genome to a sample collected in 2017, they found some 40 genetic mutations had occurred. Some researchers have suggested that these mutations have improved how easily the virus can spread from person to person, but it seems that there is no firm consensus yet.

In September 2023, an entirely new mpox clade I variant, tentatively called clade IB, was discovered in the DRC. The World Health Organization has not confirmed if the new variant causes more severe disease or can be spread more easily.

Rosamund Lewis, the mpox technical lead at the World Health Organization, posits that genetic mutations are not behind the sudden global surge of mpox. Instead, she suggests that the virus happened to start infecting new populations sex workers and men who have sex with men and that has in turn fueled wider transmission. Mpox is reminiscent of the origins of HIV, when chimpanzees infected humans in southwestern Cameroon before taking firm root in the booming urban center and among the large sex worker population of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC.

Sexual transmission among adults may only be one of the main drivers of mpox transmission. In the DRC, some 70 percent of mpox cases recorded this year were among children who were likely exposed through close contact with infected animals or household members who were infected.

One of the biggest risk factors for severe mpox infection and death is preexisting HIV infection. Unfortunately, about 25.6 million people in Africa have HIV, more than any other region in the world, meaning many African nations may experience deadlier outbreaks than other parts of the world. The dual burden of mpox and HIV was also a major factor that prompted the Africa CDC to declare the mpox outbreaks a continental emergency, Kaseya explained.

There are at least two vaccines Jynneos, also called Imvanex in Europe, which is made by Danish company Bavarian Nordic, and LC16, which is manufactured by Japanese company KM Biologics that are effective against mpox. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the Jynneos vaccine for use against smallpox and mpox in 2019. LC16 was developed for smallpox but is also effective against mpox.

When the US and Europe started recording mpox cases in 2022, health officials quickly disseminated millions of doses of existing vaccines. For the first two years of the pandemic, however, no vaccines were available in the DRC.

The DRC, like most countries in Africa, does not have the infrastructure to produce its own vaccines nor can it afford to pay for millions of doses. (The mpox vaccine costs just under $100 per dose, according to Kaseya; GDP per capita in the DRC is just $649.) Thus, these countries must rely on donations from the US, Europe, and other countries. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Africa CDC started leading efforts to fill this crucial gap, but progress has been slow.

In the void, officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries have been carrying on their outbreak responses without vaccines. It wasnt until last month that the first shipments of mpox vaccines started arriving in the DRC. But the country received only 200,000 doses, according to Lewis, forcing personnel to cobble together a plan outlining how they will utilize such finite resources. Kaseya did not elaborate on how Africa CDC will aid in this process.

Donor governments have been providing technical and financial support for mpox outbreak responses in Africa. Last week, the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, announced that it will surge $10 million in funds to support the mpox response in DRC.

It remains unclear if the new emergency designations will have any impact on mpox vaccine availability. Still, the Africa CDC and World Health Organization are increasing financial resources for the mpox response. Earlier this month, the African Union released $10.4 million in funds for the mpox response. The World Health Organization has promised $1.45 million in emergency funds, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with more to follow in the coming days.

This is a fight for all Africans and we will fight it together, Kaseya said.

Update, August 15, 1:35 pm ET: This story was originally published on August 13 and has been updated multiple times, most recently to include a statement from the USs CDC about the risk of mpox to Americans as well as the news of the first case outside of Africa in Sweden.

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Mpox never stopped spreading in Africa. Now its an international public health emergency. Again. - Vox.com

Geneva, 15 August 2024 Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance continues to be deeply concerned about the escalating mpox emergency on the African continent. We welcome recently announced measures by our partners at the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) which will help create an enabling environment in support of a comprehensive region-led response, and join partners in emphasizing the importance of international coordination following a declaration of a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security by Africa CDC and a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by WHO.

Working in collaboration with countries and partners, Gavi has been closely monitoring the mpox situation since 2022. As a result, considerations related to mpox have helped inform both the design of Gavis new innovative health security mechanisms, aimed at addressing systemic gaps exposed during the COVID-19 vaccine response, as well as Gavis next five-year strategy. When the assessment process for Gavis next five-year Vaccine Investment Strategy (VIS) began in 2023, mpox vaccines were included for consideration. Special sessions of the VIS Steering Committee were convened in Q1 2024 to ensure the approach took into account developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the outbreak has spread rapidly, primarily impacting children (in terms of both morbidity and mortality), and resulting in a high case fatality ratio.

As a result, in June 2024 the Gavi Board approved the following measures related to mpox:

Gavi has been monitoring the mpox situation daily for the past several weeks, and is currently engaging closely with countries, Africa CDC, WHO, UNICEF, donors, and manufacturers to support the response to mpox. Our actions include:

Continued here:

Gavi statement on mpox emergency in Africa - Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, after rising cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the potential for further spread.

This now triggers a coordinated international response to an extraordinary event and the mobilisation of resources, such as vaccines and diagnostic testing, to curb the spread of this infectious disease.

But WHO has not declared mpox a pandemic. Rather, the measures it has triggered are designed to prevent it from becoming one.

Mpox, once known as monkeypox, is a viral infection closely related to smallpox. Initial symptoms include a fever, headache, swelling of the lymph nodes and muscle ache. A typical rash follows, mainly on the face, hands and feet.

The spread of mpox through certain African countries led the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to declare earlier this week mpox a public health emergency of continental security. This is the first time the organisation has issued such an alert since it was established in 2017.

The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa has been particularly worrying for more than a year.

There are two types or clades of mpox. Clade II, which originates in west Africa, is less severe. It has a fatality rate of up to 1% (in other words, roughly one in 100 are expected to die from it). But clade I, from central Africa, has a fatality rate of up to 10% (up to one in ten die). This compares to a 0.7% fatality rate for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeing large epidemics of the more deadly clade I mpox.

Mpox is endemic in some parts of central and west Africa, where the virus exists in animals and can spread to humans. Outbreaks have been increasing, with more human-to-human spread, since 2017.

This is partly due to very low levels of immunity to the mpox virus, which is related to the virus that causes smallpox. Mass vaccination against smallpox ceased more than 40 years ago globally, resulting in minimal immunity in populations today against mpox.

The WHO designation announced this week relates to the clade I. Not only does this have a higher fatality rate, it has new mutations that enhance spread between people. These changes, and the global lack of immunity to mpox, makes the worlds population vulnerable to the virus.

In 2022, an epidemic of mpox swept through non-endemic countries, including beyond Africa. This was a variant of clade II originating from Nigeria, called clade IIb. This was sexually transmitted, predominantly affecting men who have sex with men, and had a low fatality rate.

That epidemic peaked in 2022, with vaccines made available to people at risk in high-income countries, but there has been an uptick in 2024.

At the same time, large clade I epidemics were occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but with far less attention.

Vaccines were not available there, even in 2023, when there were 14,626 cases and 654 deaths. Mortality was 4.5%, and higher in children.

In fact, most cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been children. This means most transmission there is non-sexual and is likely to have occurred through close contact or respiratory aerosols.

However, in 2023 an outbreak in a non-endemic part of the country, South Kivu in the east, appeared to be by sexual transmission, indicating more than one epidemic and different transmission modes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

By mid-2024, there were already more cases in the country than all of 2023 more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths.

Testing capacity is low in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most cases are not confirmed by lab testing, and the data we have are from a small sample of genomic sequences from the Kamituga region of South Kivu.

This show mutations to the clade I virus around September 2023, to a variant termed clade Ib, which is more readily transmissible between people. We do not have much data to compare these viruses with the viruses causing cases in the rest of the country.

In the past month, the virus has spread to countries that share a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo Rwanda and Burundi. It has also spread to other east African countries, such as Kenya and Uganda. None of these countries have had mpox cases previously.

In an interconnected, mobile world, cases may spread to other continents, as mpox did in 2018 from Nigeria to the United Kingdom and other countries.

A few travel-related cases between 2018 and 2019 may have led to the large multi-country 2022 clade IIb epidemic.

As the mpox virus and smallpox viruses are related (they are both orthopoxviruses), smallpox vaccines offer protection against mpox. These vaccines were used to control the 2022 clade IIb epidemic.

However, most of the world has never been vaccinated, and has no immunity to mpox.

The newer vaccine (called Jynneos in some countries and Imvamune or Imvanex in others) is effective. However, supplies are limited, and vaccine is scarce in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WHOs declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern will help mobilise vaccines to where they are needed. The Africa Centres for Disease Control had already begun negotiations to secure 200,000 doses of vaccine, which is a fraction of what is required to control the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ultimately, a serious epidemic anywhere in the world is a concern for all of us, as it can spread globally through travel, as we saw with the COVID pandemic.

Controlling it at the source is the best measure, and WHOs latest declaration will help mobilise the required resources.

Surveillance for spread of this more serious version of mpox is also essential, bearing in mind that many countries do not have the capacity for widespread testing. So well have to rely on suspected cases, based on a clinical definition, to keep track of the epidemic.

Open-source epidemic intelligence such as using AI to monitor trends in rash and fever illness can also be used as an early warning system in countries with weak health systems or delayed reporting of cases.

A further complication is that 20-30% of people with mpox may simultaneously have chickenpox, an unrelated infection that also causes a rash. So an initial diagnosis of chickenpox (which is easier to test for) does not rule out mpox.

Effective communication and tackling push-back against public health measures and disinformation is also key. We saw how important this was during the COVID pandemic.

Now, WHO will coordinate the global mpox response, focusing on equity in disease prevention and access to diagnostics and vaccines. It is up to individual countries to do their best to comply with the International Health Regulations, and the protocols for how such a global emergency are managed.

The World Health Organization has more information about mpox, including symptoms and treatment. For information about vaccine access and availability, contact your local health department or doctor, as this varies from country to country.

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WHO has declared mpox a global health emergency. What happens next? - The Conversation

Swedish health authorities announced the first case of the highly infectious mpox just a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency for the outbreaks in Africa.

"In this case, a person was infected during a stay in the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of (the more infectious mpox formerly known as monkeypox)," the Public Health Agency of Sweden announced on Thursday.

Magnus Gisslen, a state epidemiologist with the Swedish health agency, said the person had been treated and given "rules of conduct."

MPOX DECLARED PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY IN AFRICA AS AUTHORITIES BATTLE MULTIPLE VARIANTS

"The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population," Swedish officials said.

Swedish state epidemiologist Magnus Gissln speaks during a press conference regarding mpox in Stockholm on Thursday. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

The announcement of an infected resident in the Scandinavian country comes just a day after WHO declared the mpox outbreak a global emergency.

The U.N. health agency said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths this year, which already exceed last year's figures.

So far, more than 96% of all cases and deaths are in Congo.

Mpox on a child in Nigeria. (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control via WHO)

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were outbreaks of a "pox-like" disease in monkeys. Until recently, most human cases were seen in people in Central and West Africa who had close contact with infected animals.

In 2022, the virus was confirmed to spread via sex for the first time and triggered outbreaks in more than 70 countries that had not previously reported mpox.

'ZIKA-LIKE' MOSQUITO-BORNE VIRUS HAS SPREAD INTO EUROPE, HEALTH OFFICIALS WARN

Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms like fever, chills and body aches. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

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Earlier this year, scientists identified a highly contagious form of mpox, which can kill up to 10% of people.

Mpox is transmittable and highly contagious. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

Scientists in Europe have maintained that although mpox is transmittable and highly contagious, advanced health care in Sweden and other rich countries can stop the transmission before it becomes an epidemic.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.

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Sweden reports first case of highly infectious mpox virus outside Africa amid outbreak there - Fox News

The mpox outbreak in Africa is yet another example of how infectious diseases perceived to be someone elses problem, and affecting mainly poor, developing countries, may suddenly pose unexpected global threats.

Other examples of neglected diseases include the West Nile, Zika and Chikungunya viruses.

Mpox was discovered in 1958 (in captive monkeys, hence the original misnomer monkeypox) and the first human case was identified in 1970. Then for decades it was largely neglected by the scientific and public health communities, regarded as an uncommon infection in remote rural areas in tropical Africa without relevance for the rest of the world.

When a massive mpox outbreak hit developed countries in 2022, increased research funding led to a surge in scientific studies. On just one medical search engine, theres been more research produced since April 2022 than in the preceding 60 years.

The 2022-23 global mpox outbreak happened despite repeated calls from African researchers for increased global investment in diagnostic, therapeutic and infection prevention tools for mpox.

The WHO has now declared the current upsurge of mpox in central Africa a public health emergency of international concern.

This is the highest alert level for events that constitute a public health risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

We are infectious disease researchers who have worked on HIV, SARS-CoV-2 and other viral infections.

Mpoxs recent history is yet another reminder that an infectious disease in one corner of the world should not be regarded as someone elses problem, as it can suddenly start to spread fast and far.

It also highlights global inequities in resource allocation and access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments. These were made available in many industrialised countries and helped curb the global outbreak, but are still largely lacking in most of Africa.

Read more: Mpox: what to watch out for, treatment and what to worry about

The disease has been renamed mpox but the name of the virus, for now, remains monkeypox (MPXV). It is closely related to the smallpox virus.

MPXV was considered a zoonotic disease endemic in parts of central and west Africa. It was acquired mainly through close contact with wild mammals, especially handling bush meat, but there was no sustained human-to-human transmission.

Only very occasionally were cases seen outside the endemic areas, due to infected travellers or import of infected small mammals.

This changed abruptly in 2022: a massive, rapidly evolving global outbreak caused over 99,000 laboratory-confirmed cases in 116 countries. At its peak in August 2022, over 6,000 cases were reported each week.

This outbreak came as a total surprise: most cases were reported from non-endemic countries, mostly in men who have sex with men who had become infected during recent sexual encounters.

Even though most cases were clinically not particularly severe and the death toll stands at just over 200, the global outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on 23 July 2022.

Fortunately, case numbers soon plummeted due to a combination of behavioural changes and vaccination in at-risk groups.

Modern vaccines and antiviral drugs with activity against mpox were made available in many affected high-income countries.

These had been developed and stockpiled in the US and Europe, mostly in preparation for a potential bioweapon attack using a poxvirus.

The global outbreak in 2022 was caused by clade II of MPXV, which is endemic in west Africa and not as virulent as clade I MPXV, which so far has only been seen in the Congo Basin.

That first mpox public health emergency of international concern was declared over in May 2023.

Clade II MPXV infections are still occurring globally, but the worst seems over for now.

Complacency would be misguided, as illustrated by the current mpox outbreak that is gathering steam.

The African region is experiencing an upsurge in mpox cases which started in 2023.

As the continent which includes the areas where mpox has been endemic for a long time, Africa now presents a complex mosaic:

cases arising from the endemic, largely zoonotic, pattern that used to be predominant in the past

cases linked to the 2022 global outbreak, for example in South Africa

most worryingly, ever increasing numbers of MPXV clade Ib infections reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read more: Mpox cases are soaring in Africa -- what must be done to prevent a global pandemic

The current clade I MPXV (formerly called Congo Basin strain) is more virulent than the clade II (west African) strain, resulting in a higher case fatality rate.

The ongoing outbreak has its epicentre in South Kivu province, eastern DRC, and has the potential to fuel a large pandemic.

It has a distinct epidemiological pattern with sustained chains of human-to-human transmission, often via the sexual route.

It may have increased transmissibility (we dont know yet).

The virus which causes it is the newly defined clade Ib lineage. It displays mutations that are the hallmark of human-to-human spread that is estimated to have been happening since September 2023.

Case numbers are rising rapidly, even though many suspected cases are likely not tested and thus not counted as confirmed. Complicating matters, a commonly used test was found to miss infections with this lineage of the virus.

It affects mostly adults.

The case fatality rate is higher than it was in the 2022 global outbreak.

Already, this outbreak has resulted in mpox cases occurring in several neighbouring countries, including some (like Kenya) with no previous record of mpox.

The challenge is enormous. The eastern DRC is an area beset by multiple problems. This includes natural disasters, violence and infectious diseases including measles, cholera and poliomyelitis for the DRC.

In recent years the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever took place in the wider area and, despite the availability of vaccines and treatments, posed considerable challenges.

A recent article we co-authored in The Lancet Global Health outlines what needs to be done to contain this outbreak and prevent it from turning into an epidemic, possibly even a pandemic.

Equitable access to diagnostic tests, vaccines and antiviral treatments requires political commitment and financial investments.

Scientific investigations are needed to learn more about exposure settings, transmission routes and clinical presentations.

Its important to find the best ways to make these interventions.

We have proposed the establishment of an African-led, multidisciplinary, multi-country Mpox Research Consortium (MpoxReC) in Africa.

It should conduct research towards the elimination of mpox as a public health problem.

There is no doubt that a disease in one corner of the world can suddenly become a global heath threat. Its time the global health system woke up to this reality.

The rest is here:

Mpox outbreak in Africa was neglected it could now turn into the next global pandemic - The Conversation

People should get vaccinated against mpox if travelling to an African country affected by the latest outbreak, the EU's public health body has said.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has updated its advice after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency following the detection of a more contagious strain of the virus in 16 African countries.

The outbreak of the strain - called clade 1b - was first detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The endemic form of the virus, clade 1, has also been spreading throughout Africa.

More than 17,000 mpox cases and at least 571 deaths have been confirmed in Africa this year, officials have said. The figures exceed last year's totals.

The UK has been preparing for cases after a person in Sweden was found to have the clade 1b strain of mpox.

The disease, previously known as monkeypox, is a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms. It is usually mild but can kill.

It is passed on through close physical contact and symptoms include a high temperature, headache, muscle aches, backache, and a rash.

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Following its latest risk assessment, the ECDC said it is "highly likely" Europe will have "more imported cases of mpox caused by the clade I virus currently circulating in Africa".

It therefore increased its risk level assessment from "low" to "moderate" in relation to the chance of sporadic cases appearing in EU countries.

However, the ECDC has said "strengthened surveillance and preparedness activities" as well as "robust healthcare" across Europe means the impact of mpox on the continent "will be low".

As part of measures to try and prevent the spread of the virus, the public health body is also advising travellers to "epidemic areas" to "consult their healthcare provider or travel health clinic regarding eligibility for vaccination against mpox".

Pamela Rendi-Wagner, director of ECDC, said: "As a result of the rapid spread of this outbreak in Africa, ECDC has increased the level of risk for the general population in the EU/EEA and travellers to affected areas. Due to the close links between Europe and Africa, we must be prepared for more imported clade I cases."

Read more: How does mpox spread and what is the risk to the world?

Mpox is a viral disease that occurs mostly in central and western Africa. It was first identified in laboratory monkeys, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Common symptoms of mpox are a skin rash or pus-filled lesions which can last two to four weeks. It also can cause fever, headaches, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.

A human can contract it through physical contact with someone who is infectious or with infected animals.

Currently there is no treatment approved specifically for mpox virus infections, according to the CDC.

However, a two-dose vaccine has been developed to protect against the virus.

The CDC says that for most patients with mpox who have intact immune systems and dont have a skin disease, supportive care and pain control will help them recover without medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the WHO is due to host an emergency meeting to discuss ways to ensure fair global access to tests, treatments, and vaccines for the virus.

It comes as a Red Cross and Red Crescent official said far more diagnostic kits, treatments and vaccines need to be shipped to Africa to respond adequately to the outbreak of the new strain of mpox there.

Shares in pharmaceutical companies producing and developing mpox vaccines rose on Friday.

Dr Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention, told Sky News there are cases in 16 countries in Africa, including DR Congo, where the outbreak was first spotted.

"For the first time, we have countries like Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda reporting cases," he said.

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Burundi, Central Africa Republic, South Africa, and Nigeria have also detected cases, the WHO said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan confirmed on Friday a case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country.

It is not clear whether it was of the new variant or of the clade that has been spreading globally since 2022.

China said earlier on Friday it plans to monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox for the next six months.

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Mpox: People advised to get vaccine if they are travelling to affected African countries - Sky News

Test tubes labelled "Monkeypox virus positive and negative" are seen in this image on May 23, 2022. Reuters

KINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering an exponential rise in the number of monkeypox cases, the government said Saturday.

Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said the cumulative number of suspected cases had hit 11,166, including 450 deaths, for a fatality rate of four percent.

He said a report by the countrys health ministry revealed an exponential increase in the number of cases.

Muyaya added that the western province of Equateur was worst affected. The report said the government was taking a series of measures to combat the disease, notably medical care, monitoring of contacts with the respective health zones (and) promotion of community-based surveillance.

The report came just days after the World Health Organization warned of the threat to global health posed by the Mpox disease amid concern of a potential epidemic outbreak of a new, more deadly strain of the virus in the DRC.

The latest outbreak shows no sign of slowing down, said WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He cited 11,000 reported cases and 445 deaths, with children worst affected.

Rosamund Lewis, specialist in monkey pox at the WHO, also warned of the risk of the virus crossing borders.

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Huge rise in monkeypox cases in DR Congo - The News International

The Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering an exponential rise in the number of monkeypox cases, the government said, Report informs referring to AFP.

Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said the cumulative number of suspected cases had hit 11,166, including 450 deaths, for a fatality rate of four percent.

He said a report by the countrys health ministry revealed an exponential increase in the number of cases.

Muyaya added that the western province of Equateur was worst affected.

Azrbaycan24 sosial bklrd

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Huge rise in monkey pox cases in DR Congo: Govt - azrbaycan24

There were only four cases last year.

HARTFORD, Connecticut Officials announced Monday that 11 Connecticut residents have been diagnosed with mpox (formally known as monkey pox) so far this year.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health said 11 patients are between the ages of 20 and 50, and reside in Fairfield, New Haven, New London and Hartford counties.

Most of the patients have not been hospitalized said officials. In 2023, only four Connecticut residents were diagnosed with mpox and there were 145 cases in 2022. Additionally, there has never been a death in Connecticut associated with mpox.

Fortunately, we are in a far different place than we were in 2022 thanks to the availability of the mpox vaccine and greater awareness, said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD. Mpox spreads through close prolonged contact with an infected person. This might include coming into contact with skin lesions, or bodily fluids, sharing clothes or other materials that have been used by an infected person, or inhaling respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to-face contact.

Juthani added that residents who are concerned about fever, swollen glands, and a new rash, should contact their health care provider. Although anyone can get and spread mpox, the current cases are primarily among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men and their sexual partners. For those who have multiple or anonymous sex partners, their likelihood of mpox exposure is higher.

Vaccination is highly recommended for people who are at risk for mpox. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended to provide maximum protection. The CDC estimates that only one in three Connecticut residents at risk have received both doses of the vaccine. With continued mpox spread in the US and globally, people at risk should get vaccinated to protect their health and their communities. People who have received only one dose can still get a second dose, Vaccination is not recommended for people with current mpox symptoms or people who have already had mpox.

For those seeking additional information on the vaccine, please contact your health care provider or visit the DPH mpox page: ct.gov/dph/mpox

Doug Stewart is a Senior Digital Content Producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached atdstewart@fox61.com.

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MPox cases up to 11 this year says CT DPH | fox61.com - FOX61 Hartford