2024-08-17 08:31:29
The African Union health agency (Africa CDC) reported on Saturday 17 August that 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of MPOX have been counted in Africa since the beginning of the year, including 1,200 in one week. Statistics from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that several variants of the virus have been listed, adding that there were 3,101 confirmed cases and 15,636 suspected cases. A total of 541 people have died in 12 countries on the African continent.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also highlighted that more cases have been recorded since the beginning of 2024 than in all of 2023 (14,838 cases).
According to the same source, nearly all cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicenter of the outbreak, with 16,800 suspected or confirmed cases. Cases have been reported in all 26 provinces of the country of about 100 million people. Burundi, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, has recorded 173 cases (134 suspected and 39 confirmed), a 75% increase in a week.
Africa is facing the spread of the new MPOX strain discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in September 2023, which is more deadly and transmissible than previous strains.
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The current situation is different from 2022
This week, the first MPOX cases emerged outside Africa in Sweden and Pakistan. The resurgence of the virus prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday to declare a public health emergency of international concern (Upppi), the United Nations organization’s highest alert level. In 2022, when the MPOX epidemic spreads around the world, the World Health Organization has already made such a decision. The alert will be lifted in May 2023. “Public Health Emergency”its highest alert level.
The outbreak outside Africa two years ago was carried by clade 2b, a variant prevalent in West Africa that is known to be less lethal than the clade 1 that dominates the Congo basin in central Africa. As a result, despite the rapid spread of the virus across Europe and the American continent, the mortality rate remains below 1%. The disease was spread by an infected person returning from Nigeria and is mainly spread among men who have sex with men (MSM), a group that has become well aware of sexual health issues since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (MSM).
The current situation is different. Clade 1, which spreads primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is known to be more lethal, with an estimated mortality rate of between 3% and 5%. The first victims are children, who are more susceptible to the dehydration and malnutrition that the disease can cause, but also to bacterial superinfections caused by pustules that invade the patient’s skin and mucous membranes. Previously, this branch was mainly transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, particularly through clothing and bed linen.
But other strains also exist, such as clade 1b. The latter acquired a new mode of transmission, sexual transmission, which accelerated its spread. All in all, it is a new variant that is deadlier and more transmissible than the 2022 variant that is currently circulating in Africa and has the potential to escape to other countries through travel.
READ ALSO | Article reserved for our subscribers Mpox virus: Are we at risk of new variants spreading globally?
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