This year alone, there have already been 400% more confirmed cases of Mpox than in the whole of 2023, according to epidemiologist Ngashi Ngongo, head of the Executive Office of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – which borders Angola – the epicenter of the Mpox epidemic, and neighboring Burundi are responsible for 96% of the 1.001 new infections confirmed in the region in the last week, while Gabon, Guinea-Conakry, Rwanda, Cameroon and South Africa – Mozambique's neighbor – have not confirmed any new cases in the last four weeks, according to data from the Africa CDC.

Regarding vaccination against Mpox, Ngongo explained that around 5,6 million doses have been confirmed to be sent to Africa, including 2,5 million doses of the vaccine produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic and another three million doses of the drug from the Japanese company KM Biologics.

“DRC, Nigeria, Rwanda, Central African Republic (CAR), South Africa and Ivory Coast have already prepared their vaccination plan.”

Two of these countries – the DRC and Rwanda – are already in the process of vaccination campaigns, and Nigeria plans to begin its own Mpox immunization campaign next Tuesday, October 29, 2024.

The different Mpox epidemics in Africa are driven by different transmission patterns, and this new variant of the virus is transmitted primarily between humans, while the older version mostly originated in animals, according to a study published today by scientific journal Cell.

“Human Mpox cases in the DRC are fueled by two transmission patterns,” the investigation summarizes.

Several Mpox epidemics are currently underway in the DRC and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring countries, and are fueled by two different versions of the virus: Clade I, which has been circulating for decades, and Clade Ib, a new, more aggressive variant.

The latter was identified in a patient in Germany, one of the few cases in which this variant has been identified outside of Africa. A global epidemic of Mpox, a disease that causes multiple skin lesions, has been ongoing since 2022, but it involves a different version of the virus, known as Clade II.

This complex situation, which led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare Mpox a global emergency, leads researchers to examine the specific characteristics of these different versions, in terms of dangerousness, contagiousness and modes of transmission.

The study published in Cell focuses on this last point. Historically, Mpox is best known for being transmitted through contact with animals, particularly through the consumption of contaminated meat.

However, recent epidemics also appear to be linked to human-to-human transmission, particularly during sexual intercourse. The study, based on genetic analysis of viruses collected from several hundred patients, concludes that both logics are at play.

Most cases linked to the Clade Ia variant appear to result from contamination by various animals, while the Clade Ib variant much more frequently presents a mutation typical of its adaptation to humans. This suggests that its transmission occurs primarily from one human to another.

Read the full news on our website, Mais Afrika. Follow the link:

Africa, More Afrika, Mpox, Monkeypox, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, CDC Africa, World Health Organization, WHO, Deaths,

Picture: © Moise Kasereka