The World Health Organization has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern – a new variant of the virus has caused an outbreak in Central and West Africa and spread to Sweden
By Grace Wade
16 August 2024
Illustration of the mpox virus
TUMEGGY/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health emergency of international concern over an ongoing outbreak of mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – in Central and West Africa. This is the second time in two years that the disease has spread enough to prompt such a declaration from the WHO. On 15 August, Swedish health officials confirmed a case as the first known infection outside of Africa with the mpox strain that is currently driving the outbreak.
What is mpox?
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus that belongs to the same family as that which causes smallpox. It regularly spreads among animals in Central and West Africa such as rodents and monkeys, but occasionally jumps to people, causing small outbreaks.
There are two distinct lineages of mpox: clade I and clade II. Clade I is associated with more severe disease and higher risk of death. A subtype of clade I, called clade Ib, is driving the current outbreak, while the global mpox outbreak in 2022 and 2023 was spurred by a subtype of clade II.
Advertisement
So far, there is no evidence to suggest that clade Ib is more dangerous than the original clade I strain, said Jonas Albarnaz at The Pirbright Institute in the UK in a statement.
How many cases of mpox have there been in 2024?
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on 13 August that there have been more than 17,000 suspected cases across the continent. “This is just the tip of the iceberg when we consider the many weaknesses in surveillance, laboratory testing and contact tracing,” the agency said in the statement.
There have been 15,664 reported cases and 537 deaths so far in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, according to the WHO. This exceeds the total seen in 2023, according to a statement by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the WHO on 15 August.