AFRICA’S growing mpox outbreaks, which recently prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global emergency, are largely due to decades of neglect and the global community's failure to contain sporadic epidemics, according to African scientists.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, chair of WHO’s mpox emergency committee, highlighted that this neglect has led to the emergence of a more transmissible variant of the virus in countries with limited resources to control outbreaks.

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading largely undetected in Africa for years before causing a major outbreak in 2022 across more than 70 countries, Ogoina said during a virtual briefing.

“The situation in Africa now differs from the global outbreak in 2022,” Ogoina explained in an AP report. While the previous outbreak primarily affected gay and bisexual men, the virus in Africa is now spreading through sexual transmission and close contact, particularly among children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable groups.

Ogoina noted that most Africans under 50 are highly susceptible to mpox, as they were not vaccinated against smallpox, which might offer some protection against the virus.

Mpox is related to smallpox but usually causes milder symptoms like fever and body aches. It spreads mainly through close skin-to-skin contact, including during sex, though severe cases can cause painful blisters on the face, hands, chest, and genitals.

Earlier this month, WHO declared the escalating mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 11 other African countries as a global emergency.

On Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 22,800 mpox cases and 622 deaths across the continent, with infections increasing by 200% in the last week. Most cases and deaths have been in the DRC, where children under 15 are the most affected.

Dr. Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, a Congolese scientist, warned that diagnostic tests in the country often fail to detect the virus, making it difficult to track the spread of the newest variant.

In May, Mbala-Kingebeni, who leads a lab at the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, published research indicating that the new mpox variant might be less deadly but more easily spread among humans.

However, the lack of sufficient testing makes monitoring these outbreaks challenging.

This new variant has been found in four other African countries and in Sweden, where the first case of the more infectious strain was detected in a person who had visited Africa.

WHO has stated that current data does not indicate the new variant is more dangerous, though research continues.

Marion Koopmans, a virologist at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, noted that mpox is causing significant impacts, including miscarriages among pregnant women and cases of babies born with the virus.

Ogoina emphasized that without vaccines and treatments, African health workers should focus on providing supportive care, such as ensuring proper nutrition and mental health support for patients, particularly given the stigma around mpox.

“It’s troubling that after 54 years of mpox, we are only now considering treatments,” Ogoina said.(MyTVCebu)

• Tags
• #Mpox
• #World Health Organization
• #Global Emergency
• #Africa
• #Health