The World Health Organization (WHO) is evaluating whether to declare the current mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) due to a significant increase in cases and deaths compared to the previous year.
The outbreak saw over 27,000 cases and about 1,100 deaths, mostly affecting children under 15 in the DRC and neighboring countrie.
It is caused by a new clade (1b) of the mpox virus, resulting in more severe illness and higher fatality rates compared to the earlier variant that spread globally in 2022.
Two suspected cases of mpox were reported in Mombasa and Kilifi, Kenya, with one case traced through contacts of an index patient, a truck driver who had travelled from Uganda.
The Kenyan Ministry of Health dispatched medical experts, enhanced surveillance, and advised preventive measures, while the Deputy Director-General denied reports of new confirmed cases, stating that contact tracing and sample testing are ongoing.
Mpox is transmitted to humans through infected persons, animals, or primates, and spreads through close and skin-to-skin contact, as well as infected respiratory droplets from sneezing and coughing.
This mpox outbreak is notably larger than previous ones, with spread to unaffected provinces and matching the total cases reported in the prior year, involving over 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths in the DRC.
In May 2022, mpox infections rose globally, mainly impacting gay and bisexual men due to the Clade IIb subclade. Since September 2023, a different strain, the Clade Ib subclade, has been surging in the DRC, with the outbreak spreading to previously unaffected provinces and neighboring countries like Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
The CDC and WHO have issued alerts, convened expert groups, and are urging clinicians to be vigilant for mpox in individuals who have traveled to affected areas.
The WHO is working to improve access to mpox vaccines and has released funding to ramp up response in affected countries, while the CDC has issued a health alert and recommends vigilance for mpox cases, especially in patients with recent travel to affected regions.
The WHO Director-General emphasized the need for a comprehensive response involving communities, released funds to support the effort, and has called for more funding, international assistance, vaccination, and public awareness campaigns to combat the virus.
A previous mpox outbreak led to cases in various countries, resulting in over 87,000 confirmed cases and 1,100 deaths worldwide. The current mpox outbreak involves a different virus variant with a historically higher fatality rate, impacting countries in central and eastern Africa.
The outbreak involves cases with varying fatality rates based on age, with young children being more susceptible to severe outcomes.
Sources: Newsweek, Ars Technica, Live Science, Al Jazeera, Nation, The Straits Times, Times of India, Goa Chronicle, The Health Site, Times Now News, BNO News, STAT
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
