Skin lesions that are characteristic of mpox are seen on a young patient at Kavumu hospital in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on August 30, 2024. Photo Credit: WHO
Geneva: The Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to experience a high burden of mpox, with the circulation of both clade I MPXV subclades, the World Health Organization said today. Despite many of the provinces reporting stable trends in cases, the situation in the country remains concerning, with many areas seeing sustained transmission. The escalating violence in the eastern part of the country poses additional challenges for the mpox response.
New travel-related cases of mpox due to clade Ib MPXV have been detected in countries that had already detected travel-related cases before, including Thailand and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The United Arab Emirates has reported its first detection of a case of mpox due to clade Ib MPXV in-country.
The outbreak of mpox due to clade Ib monkeypox virus (MPXV) continues predominantly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Uganda, with new travel-related cases identified in previously unaffected countries.
In the last six weeks, Uganda has reported the second-highest number of confirmed cases, which constitute over a third of all confirmed cases reported on the continent during this period, with an ongoing increase in weekly incidence.
New travel-related cases of mpox due to clade Ib MPXV have been detected in countries that had already detected travel-related cases before, including Thailand and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Since its first detection in September 2023, clade Ib MPXV has been detected in eight provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (in South Kivu, North Kivu, Kinshasa, Kasai, Tshopo, Tanganyika, Haut-Katanga, and Mai-Ndombe provinces). Within Africa, community transmission has been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia; travel-related cases have been reported in Zimbabwe.
In addition, while no cases have so far been confirmed in Tanzania, the identification of mpox cases in other countries who had travelled to Tanzania, along with information from affected communities in the country, suggests ongoing undetected transmission.
Outside Africa, 13 countries have reported detecting clade Ib MPXV: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (nine cases), China (seven cases), Germany (seven cases), Thailand (four cases), Belgium (two cases), the United States of America (two cases), Canada (one case), France (one case), India (one case), Oman (one case), Pakistan (one case), Sweden (one case), and the United Arab Emirates (one case). No deaths associated with clade Ib MPXV have been reported in these countries.
– global bihari bureau
