London, 27 August 2024 (TDI): Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it.
That means there are multiple unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, complicating the response, half a dozen scientists in Europe, Africa, and the US said.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a public health issue in counries of Africa since 1970, but received little international attention until it surged globally in 2022, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global health emergency. That declaration ended ten months later.
A new strain of the virus, known as clade Ib, received attention on world level again after the WHO declared a new health emergency.
The strain is a mutated version of clade I, a form of mpox transmitted by contact with infected animals that has been endemic in Congo for decades. Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can be fatal.
Mpox in Congo
Congo has had over 18,000 suspected clade I and clade Ib mpox cases and 615 deaths this year, according to the WHO. There have also been 222 confirmed clade Ib cases in four African nations in July, plus a case each in Sweden and Thailand in people with a travel history in Africa.
Also Read More: Mpox Virus Can Be Treated And Controlled; says WHO Official
Mpox is an orthopoxvirus, the same group that causes smallpox. Population-wide protection from a global vaccine drive 50 years ago has waned, as the vaccinating stopped when the illness was eradicated.
Genetic sequencing of clade Ib infections, which the health agency estimates emerged mid-September last year, show they carry a mutation known as APOBEC3, a signature of adaptation in humans.
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