Boosted by the new Clade 1b variant, which is more contagious than Clade 2, the Mpox epidemic (formerly called “monkey pox”) continues to gain ground. Since the WHO declared a state of public health emergency on August 14, new cases have been detected around the world. L’Express has conducted an overview of the countries in which infections with the African strain have been confirmed.
Central African countries are the most affected. 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of Mpox have been recorded since the beginning of the year in Africa, including 1,200 in one week, the African Union health agency (Africa CDC) said on Saturday, August 17. Thus, more cases have already been recorded in a few months than in the whole of 2023 (14,838), according to the Africa CDC.
Homes in the DRC, Burundi or Kenya
This Thursday, August 22, the Burundi Ministry of Health announced that it had recorded 171 confirmed cases of the Mpox virus. “Until yesterday evening (Wednesday, August 21), we already had a cumulative total of 171 confirmed positive cases, including 137 still active in at least 26 of the 49 health districts in our country,” a spokesperson for the ministry, Polycarpe Ndayikeza, told AFP, specifying that no deaths linked to the virus had occurred.
Unlike the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the epidemic, which as of August 15 had 548 deaths for 15,664 potential cases of Mpox. Outbreaks have also been reported in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. Nairobi and Kampala have announced in particular that they have strengthened their screening process at the border.
East Asia affected
Outside of the African continent, cases of Mpox have been diagnosed in South Asia and East Asia. In the Philippines, for example, where a 33-year-old man, who had not traveled outside the country, contracted the virus. However, health authorities are awaiting sequencing results to determine whether this is a case of Clade 1b subtype.
In Pakistan, a case of Mpox was detected last week. But tests revealed that it was the strain of the old variant of the Clade 2 subtype, which is less transmissible. Conversely, Thailand confirmed on Thursday that the case of Mpox detected on its territory this week in a traveler from Africa was indeed from the African strain responsible for the current epidemic.
Europe largely spared… for the moment
So far, only one case of Clade 1b subtype has been reported on the Old Continent. The infected patient was confirmed on August 15 in Sweden, making the kingdom the first non-African country to have recorded a case of Clade 1b subtype on August 15.
Although no contamination has yet been declared in France, caution is advised. While promising to send 100,000 doses of vaccines to the most affected countries, the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced the opening of 232 vaccination sites. The day before, the Pasteur Institute said it was ready to “test and vaccinate patients at the request of the French authorities”. In its last opinion dating from January 2023, the HAS recommended vaccination only for people who had been in contact with sick people if the cases remained “isolated or scattered”.