WHO Calls for Immediate Action as DRC Battles New, Mutated Mpox Strain

The World Health Organization has stated that the spread of mpox in Africa has to be combatted, as more deaths were recorded due to a mutated strain of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mpox, previously referred to as monkeypox, is a viral disease originating from the Orthopoxvirus family and similar to smallpox, it results in flu-like symptoms together with rashes and pus-filled blisters. While most cases are mild, the virus can also be lethal.

“There is a critical need to address the recent surge in mpox cases in Africa,” WHO official Rosamund Lewis, the technical lead for mpox, disclosed to journalists.

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A new, more contagious path of mpox has been identified in the eastern border of the DRC, and scientists described it as incredibly worrying.

The mutated clade I mpox that has been endemic in Congo for decades had a fatality rate of about 5 percent in adults and 10 percent in children, according to a biomedical engineer John Claude Udahemuka, who has been on an outbreak in the volatile South Kivu province.

Cris Kacita, a doctor in charge of operations in the country’s mpox control programme, revealed last week that about 8,600 mpox cases have been reported in the DRC this year with 410 deaths.

In an interview, Kacita said: “At the rate things are going, we risk becoming a source of cases for other countries.”

South Kivu is directly located bordering on neighbouring countries such as Rwanda and Burundi.

Researchers in South Kivu said the new strain was circulating to a significant extent through sexual contact of men with women and sex workers with their partners.

It is also being transmitted through non-sexual interactions in areas such as schools.

The WHO in 2022 pronounced the illness a public health crisis after the disease struck Europe and the U.S., with many of the early cases associated with the gay community.

It was brought under control by vaccinating the high-risk population, but the vaccines were unavailable in the DRC.