A mutated strain of the monkeypox virus has been detected in at least six African countries, and fears are mounting that the cases could be but the beginnings of a continent-wide outbreak of the disease.
The new variant may have infected more than 12,300 people and killed almost 500 since the start of the year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone.
Mpox is caused by the monkeypox virus and has been spilling over from rodents and infecting humans with increasing frequency for decades. But the current spread is being driven by a variant that’s undergone genetic changes that scientists worry might have made it more infectious and dangerous.
“The uninterrupted human-to-human transmission for at least the last eight months, possibly more, has never been seen in mpox spread in the region before,” says Sylvie Jonckheere, an adviser on emerging infectious diseases at aid group MSF, or Doctors Without Borders.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus is considering declaring the outbreak a public-health emergency of international concern.
While mpox vaccines are available, few have made their way to Africa — the only continent where the disease is endemic.
“We can only plead, like so many others, for the vaccines to arrive in the country as quickly as possible and in large quantities,” says Louis Albert Massing, MSF’s medical coordinator in Congo.
Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!
