The first case of a new infectious strain of mpox has been detected in Europe after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared outbreaks in Africa a global emergency. Experts said the new strain is 'associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates' than the one that caused the global mpox outbreak in 2022.
Britain has urgently stockpiled on mpox vaccines as an expert warned the more menacing strain of the viral virus has 'very likely' already arrived on British shores.
Initial symptoms are flu-like. A rash, which often starts on the face, then spreads around the body, leading to systemic infection. He initially suffered from flu-like symptoms, such as muscle aches and a high fever, but his condition began to take a turn when lesions emerged, with some appearing in his throat.
'After 11 days in hospital I felt better and I further isolated for two weeks at home until all the scars disappeared and I was fully healed,' he said. Studies suggest up to ten per cent of infected children, and five per cent of adults, have died due to the new strain in central and southern Africa, where porous borders have assisted transmission. Jean Kakura Biyambo, a father of six from the Muja internally displaced persons camp in DRC, gestures from a general hospital where he has been receiving treatment for mpox, on July 16
Typically found in central and east Africa, mpox has blighted populations since the early 1970s. While a vaccine now exists for the disease, uptake has been slow in nations lacking the resources and infrastructure for a coordinated programme. Vials of single doses of the Jynneos vaccine for mpox are seen from a cooler at a vaccinations site in Brooklyn, New York on August 29, 2022 as the disease swept through the United StatesWhile the 2022 strain was largely driven by male-to-male sexual contact, according to The Economist, the Clade Ib variant appears to be transmissible through close non-sexual contact, and exacerbated by heterosexual sexual contact, 'particularly among sex workers, who account for about 30 per cent of...
It is usually spread through direct contact with animals such as squirrels, which are known to harbour the virus.Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research in 1958. Advertisement He explained that there are two 'clades' of mpox currently in circulation. The first carries more severe symptoms and a mortality rate of up to ten per cent. The second, responsible for the 2022 outbreak, is less lethal but has been able to thrive outside of Africa in the past.
'As the infection is thought to have a fatality rate of 10 per cent, and higher in those living with HIV infection, the risk of serious impacts is high. Brian Labus, Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas' Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, said the new variant could spread through contact with infected animals, consumption of contaminated meat, and non-sexual contact between people.
Of growing concern is the propensity for displaced persons within the DRC to move across its 'porous borders', fleeing conflict or its outcomes, and spreading the disease faster than authorities can act to curtail it.
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