A new strain of the mpox virus, formerly known as monkeypox, is spreading rampantly across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with global health officials calling it the ‘most dangerous’ strain yet.
Official figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show there have been nearly 8,000 cases this year in the DRC, including 384 deaths. Health leaders have warned that with poor access to vaccines and medical treatment in the DRC, the virus could reach other countries, including Europe.
Leandre Murhula Masirika, research coordinator in the health department in South Kivu province in the DRC, said: ‘The disease can go through airports. A person with lesions can go through borders because there are no controls. The cases are getting higher and higher every day, and it's only a question of time before it spreads to other countries. I’m very afraid it's going to cause more damage.’
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Mpox is a viral infection caused by sexual transmission and close skin-to-skin contact. It causes flu-like symptoms, pus-filled lesions and miscarriages in pregnant women.
In 2022, a less severe variant of mpox, called Clade II spread across Europe and America through sexual contact among gay and bisexual men. At the time, the UK reported almost 4,000 cases and NHS England inoculated over 68,000 people against the disease with the smallpox vaccine, which worked as the two viruses were closely related.
But the WHO have said there is no evidence to suggest the vaccine would be effective against this new strain because it is from the more deadly Clade I and can be spread through non-sexual contact, which makes it more dangerous.
It added that the continuing spread of the outbreak was ‘concerning’ and called for urgent actions to ‘improve research into the mpox virus and speed up the distribution of vaccines’.
The global health body is working with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and governments of the DRC and Rwanda to secure vaccines to try and tackle the outbreak.