African health officials say that mpox infections on the continent will rise by 160 percent by 2024. They expect the spread to continue, they say, because Africa has no effective treatment or vaccines for the virus. .
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that mpox, also known as monkeypox, has been found in 10 African countries this year.
Burundi and Rwanda both reported the virus for the first time recently.
New outbreaks have also been reported this week in Kenya and the Central African Republic.
On Wednesday, Kenya’s Ministry of Health said it had found mpox in a passenger traveling from Uganda to Rwanda on Kenya’s southern border. In a statement, the ministry said that one case of mpox is enough to require an outbreak declaration.
Africa CDC has reported more than 14,000 cases of the disease. More than 96 percent of cases and deaths are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Earlier this year, scientists reported the appearance of a new type of mpox in a Congolese mining town. They fear that it can easily spread among people. Mpox is spread through close contact with infected people, including sex.
In Africa the CDC said the mpox death rate is three percent. It said the rate “is very high on the African continent compared to the rest of the world.” During the global mpox emergency in 2022, less than 1 percent of people infected with the virus died.
An outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can kill up to 10% of infected people, experts report. The agency noted that the two mpox cases in Rwanda were in Congo before HIV testing.
A study of hospital patients from October to January in eastern Congo has shown that recent genetic changes in the virus have been the result of continued spread in humans.
In earlier mpox outbreaks, patients suffered wounds especially in the chest, arms and legs. The new version of mpox makes it much less expensive symptoms and the wounds appear mostly on the genitals.
Africa CDC said that about 70 percent of the cases in Congo are children under the age of 15. That group also represents 85 percent of the people killed by the disease. The agency said the number of deaths across the continent had risen by 19 percent since last year.
The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders called the growing mpox epidemic “worrying.” It also said the disease was found in camps for displaced people in the North Kivu region, which shares a border with Rwanda.
Dr. Louis Massing is the medical director for Congo at Doctors Without Borders. Massing said, “There is a real risk of an explosion, given the number of people coming in and out.”
Smallpox outbreaks in the West have been rare because of vaccinations and treatment. But few treatments are available in African countries including Congo.
In May, the WHO said that no donors had given money to fight the spread of mpox.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is a Norwegian-based charity. It recently announced the start of an mpox vaccine study in Congo and other African countries. It aims to study whether vaccination treatment given soon after infection can prevent the disease from worsening.
I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.
Jean Fernand Koena and Maria Cheng reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. You have changed it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in this Story
to destroy -adj. destroys or seriously injures
wounds -n. (medical) an area of infected skin that is usually swollen, red, bleeding or oozing
symptoms -n. signs that the infection is present
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