Over 22,000 Mpox Patients in Africa... 3,000 Increase in One Week

Children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo receiving treatment for mpox
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The number of Mpox (MPOX, monkeypox) infection cases on the African continent has exceeded 22,000 this year.

According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the 28th (local time), a total of 22,863 confirmed and suspected Mpox cases have been reported this year, including more than 3,000 new cases added in the past week as of the 26th. During the same period, there have been 622 deaths, with most patients and fatalities occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

Roger Kamba, the Minister of Health of DR Congo, announced the previous day that since the beginning of this year, 17,801 confirmed or suspected Mpox cases have been recorded, including more than 610 deaths. Among the 55 countries on the African continent, at least 13 countries have reported Mpox outbreaks this year.

In eight countries?DR Congo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda?the new variant, subclade 1b of Mpox, has been spreading. Clade 2, the existing subclade, has been identified in C?te d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, and South Africa. The CDC added that Cameroon is the only country where both clade 1b and clade 2 have been reported.

Mpox is an acute febrile rash illness caused by a viral infection. When it spread in the Americas and Europe in May 2022, the WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of health alert, but lifted the declaration in May last year as the spread subsided.

However, this year, with the spread of the 1b variant of Mpox, which has a relatively high fatality rate and rapid transmission mainly in Africa, the WHO re-declared the PHEIC this month, one year and three months after lifting it.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.