A deadly new strain of Mpox is raising alarm
On 14 August officials at the World Health Organisation classified the outbreak of Mpox as a global health emergency. A new strain of the disease has spread beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first time, to at least 12 other African countries. MPOX IS A viral infection typically found in parts of Africa and spread through contact with infected animals as well as within households. It causes severe fever, flu-like symptoms and a rash of pus-filled blisters across the body.
In 2022 the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, spread around the world—cases turned up everywhere from Nigeria to America and Australia. A newly discovered strain of the virus, described by some researchers as the most dangerous yet, now threatens to spread beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo into neighbouring countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Although much remains unknown about this strain, Jean Claude Udahemuka, a lecturer at the University of Rwanda who has been studying the outbreak, reports fatality rates of approximately 5% in adults and 10% in children.
The virus exhibits different transmission patterns and disproportionately affects children. On June 25th the World Health Organisation emphasised the urgent need to deal with the surge of mpox cases in Africa. The mpox outbreak in 2022 was caused by a different, and less severe form of the virus of the type “clade II".
The new strain was first identified in April in Kamituga, a gold-mining town in Congo’s South Kivu province. Researchers discovered it was a new lineage of the virus, distinct from previously known mpox strains, which they called “clade Ib". The clade Ib strain has reportedly mutated to become more efficient at human-to-human transmission.
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