Mpox Is Still Being Transmitted Across The World, Says UN Health Agency

Mpox has been confirmed in Burundi, one of four countries in Eastern Africa where the disease has surfaced for the first time, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, as the continent's top health body declared a public health emergency. 

In an update, the WHO said that an outbreak of mpox was declared in Burundi on 25 July, at around the same time that Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda also confirmed their own cases. 

The UN health agency noted that all of these infections – where patients’ symptoms included fever, joint pain and a widespread rash - were linked to the “expanding outbreak” in East and Central Africa.

Later in the day, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) officially declared the situation a public health emergency voicing concern over the speed of its spread in the past few weeks.

Every infection was identified after genetic sequencing as clade Ib – one of three recognized variants of the virus, explained WHO, which added that 934 new laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths had been reported to the UN health agency from 26 countries in June.

This indicated “continuing transmission of mpox across the world”, it noted.

Endemic problem

Mpox been circulating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for years, according to the UN health agency, which said that there has been an “unprecedented increase” in the number of countries in Africa reporting mpox, which is mainly spread through sexual contact.

Within the African Region, the WHO said that the DRC reported 96 per cent of the confirmed mpox cases in June. But with limited access to testing in rural areas, less than one quarter of suspected cases there have been tested, so it is very likely that the disease burden is higher than initial estimates.

Data indicates that the DRC has been experiencing “a severe outbreak” of mpox since the beginning of the year, with more than 14,000 cases and 511 deaths reported, the UN health agency said. 

Transmission focus

In a related development, WHO said that Côte d’Ivoire is also experiencing an outbreak of mpox, clade II; this was the variant that was responsible for the global mpox outbreak in 2022, the UN health agency said, adding that South Africa has reported two more confirmed cases.

Mpox – formerly monkeypox - is endemic in Central and West Africa.  It can be transmitted through physical contact with an infected person, animal or contaminated materials. Symptoms include skin rash or lesions, accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.

World trends

Globally, the most affected region in June was Africa with 567 cases of infection, followed by the Americas (175 cases), Europe – excluding the Eastern Mediterranean region - (100 cases), Western Pacific (81 cases) and South-East Asia (11 cases). 

From 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2024, a total of 99,176 laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox - including 208 deaths – have been reported to the UN health agency from 116 countries in all WHO regions. Apart from Africa, “the outbreak continues at a low level of transmission” globally, WHO said.

Data for June showed that 16 out of 26 reporting countries showed an increase in cases compared to May. DR Congo reported the highest increase in Africa – with 543 cases in June compared to 459 a month earlier (up 62 per cent) while Spain saw the highest increase in Europe (54 cases, up from 38 in May), Colombia reported the highest increase in the Americas with 11 cases in June and none in May, Australia had the highest increase in the Western Pacific (from 33 cases in May to 64 in June). No country reported an increase in South-East Asia. 

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