Just 15 months after the end of the emergency that had seen it as the protagonist, monkeypox - now renamed mpox - is once again causing fear .
The emergence of a new strain more dangerous than the one that spread between 2022 and 2023 and the explosion of cases in Africa have raised the alarm level once again .
Yesterday afternoon, African countries have already provided an initial response: they have declared the mpox a public health emergency for continental security . And today the World Health Organization's emergency committee is called upon to assess whether the virus represents a global threat again .
"This declaration is not simply a formality, it is a clear call to action. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this threat," said African CDC Director General Jean Kaseya.
The concern is linked to the emergence of a new strain of the virus (called Clade 1b): it is more virulent than the one that spread between 2022 and 2023 throughout the world (Clade 2b) but, compared to the twin virus endemic in Central Africa - Clade 1a -, it is transmitted more easily, for example through close contact, such as sexual contact. It is this variant of the virus that has caused infections to rise in recent months, starting from the Democratic Republic of Congo which today constitutes the epicenter of the epidemic.
The exact numbers are not certain. Yesterday, the new WHO bulletin estimated 567 infections in the African continent for the month of June. However, it is certainly an underestimate.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 15,000 cases on the continent since the beginning of the year and 461 deaths. It is not just the size of the infections that is worrying. The virus is showing that it is capable of crossing borders and establishing itself in areas where it was not present until now.
In the latest WHO survey, for example, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda also reported their first infections. The profile of infected people is also completely different from that observed between 2022 and 2023. In that case, adult males were the most affected; today, minors are among the main victims.
According to data released by the WHO, 39% of cases and 62% of deaths reported from the beginning of the year until May in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were children under 5 years of age. 20% of the deceased were under one year old and, according to Save the Children, even newborns as young as two weeks old are being admitted to hospitals because of the disease.
This is “not just another challenge but a real crisis that requires collective political action,” Jean Kaseya said. “But let me be clear: this is not just an African problem, mpox is a global threat,” he concluded.
"The Mpox epidemic is a health emergency in Africa: 10 million vaccines are needed to control it," writes EU High Representative Josep Borrell on X. "Global action and solidarity are urgently needed. At the forefront of this effort, EU Hera has worked with partners to secure 215,000 doses of vaccine to donate to the Africa CDC and affected countries."
(Unioneonline/vl)