NAIROBI — A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of mpox were reported in Africa since the beginning of the year, including 1,200 cases in one week alone, the African Union's (AU) health agency said on Saturday.
The figure accounts for three strains of the virus, of which one is the new, deadlier and more transmissible Clade 1b, which prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday to declare an international health emergency — the United Nations agency's highest alert.
To date, 3,101 confirmed and 15,636 suspected cases have been reported from 12 AU member-states, resulting in 541 deaths, or a fatality rate of 2.89 percent, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said in a statement.
The hardest-hit country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the new Clade 1b strain was first detected in September 2023, has reported 1,005 cases — 222 confirmed, 783 suspected — and 24 deaths in one week.
All 26 provinces in the DRC, which is home to some 100 million people, have reported cases.
Neighboring Burundi reported 173 cases — 39 confirmed, 134 suspected — a 75-percent increase in one week.
More cases have been reported since the beginning of the year than all of 2023, which saw a total of 14,383 cases, the Africa CDC said.
The first cases of the mpox outside of Africa were recorded this week in Sweden and Pakistan.
The WHO will soon publish its first recommendations by its emergency committee and, along with nongovernment organizations, has also called for the ramping up of vaccine production.
Mpox is a viral disease that can spread from animals to humans, but also human-to-human through sexual or close physical contact. Symptoms include fever, muscular aches and large, boil-like skin lesions.
Clade 1b causes skin eruptions all over the body, whereas previous variants caused localized lesions around the mouth, face or genitals.
The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in humans in the DRC in 1970.
The deadlier clade 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for decades.
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