A viral disease known as mpox has been spreading and infecting people at increasingly higher rates in many areas around the world. It causes fever, chills, body aches, and skin lesions; and in some rare but severe cases it may lead to death. The virus can transmit from one person to another during close physical contact, or from infected animals to people. The incubation period for mpox is from three to seventeen days. There are different versions of the mpox virus, and clade IIb mpox virus (MPXV) is now causing sporadic cases or isolated outbreaks around the world, while clade I MPXV outbreaks are ongoing in Central and East Africa.
The World Health Organization has recently declared an international emergency because of surging cases of clade II MPXV, which began causing infections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2022, and then began to spread to nearby countries. About 99.9 percent of people survive an infection with clade II while clade I death rates have varied widely, andused to be as high as ten percent but have recently dropped to one to three percent.
"The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
There have been 34,297 confirmed mpox cases and 866 deaths in Africa since January, according to the African Union's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). They have occurred in countries including Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Around 2,500 new cases were diagnosed in the past week, and the virus is "not under control," according to Jean Kaseya, the head of Africa CDC.
Children are thought to be affected at higher rates. For example, in Burundi, about two-thirds of reported cases are in children.
A surge in mpox cases has also been seen in Australia, where almost 800 people have been confirmed to have the infection this year. Most of those cases have occurred in recent months.
The viral disease has recently caused the first confirmed case in Morocco: an adult who is was receiving treatment at the time of the report. The patient was in stable condition, and contact tracing did not reveal any other suspected cases.
Another first case was also recently recorded in Ghana, and over 200 suspected cases are under investigation. The initial patient was a young boy who has since recovered.
An mpox vaccine has been approved, and vaccination campaigns are also set to start in places like DRC, and continue in countries including Rwanda. Unfortunately, as many as 10 million vaccine doses may be needed in Africa, but donors have only sponsored around 3.6 million does so far. Rollout has also been slow in some affected areas, for a variety of complex reasons.
The first diagnostic test for mpox has recently been approved by WHO as well. The test is called the Alinity m MPXV assay and it is manufactured by Abbott Molecular Inc.
The virus can spread more easily when officials and healthcare providers have less access to reliable tests, so WHO is hopeful that this test "represents a significant milestone" in increasing the ability of affected countries to test potential patients, said the assistant director-general of WHO, Yukiko Nakatani, in a statement.
"Increasing access to quality-assured medical products is central to our efforts in assisting countries to contain the spread of the virus and protect their people, especially in underserved regions."
WHO is also evaluating the accuracy and reliability of several other mpox diagnostic tests, and encouraging countries to continue monitoring for cases of the virus, and educate travelers who may be going to affected areas.
Sources: WHO, CDC