2024-08-17 13:02:10
While the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday a public health emergency of international concern regarding the spread of mpox virus, 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases have been recorded since the beginning of the year in Africa. Africa CDC, at the beginning of this reading, stated that many variants of the virus have been listed, adding that 3,101 confirmed cases, 15,636 suspected and 541 deaths reported in twelve countries on the continent the.
At the center of the epidemic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The country has almost all recorded cases with 16,800 suspected or confirmed, according to the same source. More than 500 deaths have been recorded since the beginning of 2024. 26 regions of the country with around 100 million inhabitants have recorded cases.
Africa is facing the spread of a new virus strain, found in the DRC in September 2023 and called “clade 1b”, more deadly and moving than the previous ones.
The first cases of mpox were also recorded outside Africa this week, in Sweden and Pakistan.
Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also spread through physical contact with a person who has the virus. “Clade 1b” causes rashes to appear all over the body, while previous strains are characterized by localized rashes and lesions on the mouth, face or genitals.
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