U.S. doctors should be on the lookout for a more severe strain of mpox that is spreading widely in parts of Africa, federal health officials warned Wednesday.

The alert, issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came just hours after the World Health Organization’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu tweeted that he will be gathering a group of advisers to decide whether the mpox outbreak in Africa should be declared a public health emergency of international concern.

Cases of what is known as the clade 1 strain of mpox haven’t yet been reported outside of central and eastern Africa, the CDC noted in its alert. But the likelihood of additional spread prompted the agency to recommend that doctors in this country consider this more dangerous strain of mpox in patients who have recently been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or any neighboring country (Angola, Burundi, Central Africa).

Still, “due to the limited number of travelers and lack of direct commercial flights from DRC or its neighboring countries to the United States, the risk of clade I mpox importation to the United States is considered to be very low,” the CDC added.

The latest mpox strain is different from the one that spread globally in 2022, which mainly affected men who have sex with men. Those cases have since decreased significantly in the United States, NBC News reported.

Meanwhile, mpox cases have soared by 160% in Africa this year, as a lack of both vaccines and treatments hamper efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

In a report released by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, officials said mpox has now been detected in 10 African countries this year, including Congo, the country that has been the center of the latest outbreak. That nation has seen more than 96% of all cases and deaths. Even more troubling, nearly 70% of Congo cases have been in children under the age of 15, who also accounted for 85% of mpox deaths.

Doctors Without Borders have called the expanding mpox outbreak in the Congo “worrying.”

“There is a real risk of explosion, given the huge population movements in and out,” Dr. Louis Massing, the group’s medical director for Congo, said in a statement. “We can only plead … for vaccines to arrive in the country and as quickly as possible so that we can protect the populations in the areas most affected.”

So far this year, there have been an estimated 14,250 mpox cases in Africa, almost as many as were reported in all of 2023. Compared to the first seven months of 2023, cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19%, to 456.

The countries of Burundi and Rwanda both reported mpox cases for the first time last week, and outbreaks have been declared in Kenya and the Central African Republic, the Associated Press reported.

Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new and deadlier version of mpox in a Congolese mining town. Mpox spreads through close contact with infected people, including via sex.

Meanwhile, an analysis of patients hospitalized from October to January in eastern Congo suggested that the recent genetic mutations seen in the virus were triggered by its rapid spread in that country, the AP reported.

Last month, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations announced it was starting a study in Congo and other African countries next month to see if giving people an mpox shot after they have been exposed to the virus could help prevent severe illness and death.

According to the CDC, mpox symptoms can include: rashes on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals; fever; chills; swollen lymph nodes; fatigue; muscle aches and backache; headache; and respiratory symptoms like sore throat, nasal congestion and cough.

More information

The CDC has more on mpox.

SOURCES: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health alert, Aug. 7, 2024; Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report, July 31, 2024; NBC News; Associated Press

Source: HealthDay

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