PARIS: A surging mpox outbreak in Africa was declared an emergency by the World Health Organisation this week and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an EU agency, said on Friday more imported cases to Europe were “highly likely”.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared its first-ever public health emergency for the deadly disease.

It is the second time the WHO has issued its public health emergency warning since the epidemic first spread around the world in 2022.

Now the virus has crossed from its epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to other African nations and was detected this week for the first time in Pakistan and Sweden.

What is mpox?

The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in humans in the DRC in 1970.

There are two subtypes of the virus: clade 1 and clade 2.

The deadlier clade 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin, central Africa, for decades.

The less severe clade 2 has become endemic in parts of western Africa.

Mpox can spread human-to-human through sexual or close physical contact.

Symptoms include fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

The virus gained international prominence in May 2022, when a less deadly strain, called clade 2b, spread around the world, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men.

Between January 2022 and June this year, 208 deaths and more than 99,000 mpox cases were recorded across 116 countries.

What is new?

The latest surge has been of the deadlier clade 1 _ and its new mutated variant.

The new strain, called clade 1b, was first detected among sex workers in the DRC in September last year.

Sweden this week reported the first case of the variant outside of Africa, and the EU’s health body urged countries to increase preparedness. Pakistan reported Asia’s first case on Thursday.

“It is not surprising... that travel between continents has brought this case to Europe,” said Brian Ferguson, a professor of immunology at University of Cambridge.

He added that cases were likely to spike in Europe and elsewhere as “there are currently no mechanisms in place to stop imported cases of mpox”.

Containing the epidemic will require “rapid international cooperation”, said Francois Balloux of the University College of London’s Genetics Institute, adding there was “no evidence of transmission in Europe at this stage”.

Who is affected?

Clade 1 mpox is “known for causing more severe disease in young children, pregnant women, and immune-compromised people”, said Jonas Albarnaz, who specialises in pox viruses at Britain’s Pirbright Institute.

Clade 1b is driven by sexual transmission and mostly infects young adults, Albarnaz said.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024