2023–2024 mpox epidemic

epidemic of mpox starting September 2023
(Redirected from African mpox epidemic)

An epidemic of mpox began in Africa in September 2023. As of August 2024, more than 17,000 cases have been reported with over 500 deaths.[2]

2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  Countries with 10,000+ cases
  Countries with 1,000–9,999 cases
  Countries with 100–999 cases
  Countries with 1–99 cases
  No confirmed cases
DateSeptember 2023 – present
Casualties
Country Cases[1] Deaths[1]
Democratic Republic of the Congo 13,791 450
Central African Republic 213 0
Republic of the Congo 146 1
Cameroon 35 2
Nigeria 24 0
South Africa 22 3
Burundi 8 0
Liberia 5 0
Ghana 4 0
Rwanda 2 0
Sweden 1 0
Pakistan 1 0
Total 14,252 456

On 14 August 2024, the World Health Organization named the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).[3]

Background

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In May 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that mpox (Monkeypox) was a global health emergency. The disease had infected 87,000 people and caused 140 deaths when the WHO ended its global emergency the following year.[4]

The disease came back in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by January 2024.[5] In April of the same year, a subgroup of clade I of mpox was found in a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo.[6]

In August 2024, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) said that spreading mpox outbreaks in Africa had become a public health emergency, with over 500 deaths being reported.[7]

Outbreak

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On 30 July 2024, the Central African Republic found an outbreak of mpox in Bangui, after a period of time when the disease was mostly found in rural areas.[8]

On 15 August 2024, Sweden's Public Health Agency reported the first case outside of Africa, was from a person who had gotten sick with Clade 1 mpox during a stay in an area of Africa.[9][10][11] That same day, a suspected case of mpox was reported in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which was later confirmed to be an actual case of mpox.[12]

On 19 August 2024, the Congolese government launched a response plan of forty-nine million dollars, for awareness raising, deployment of teams and care of patients and awaits additional doses of vaccines.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 2024, p. 1.
  2. Bariyo, Nicholas (14 August 2024). "Rapid Spread of Mpox in Africa Is Global Health Emergency, WHO Says". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  3. Mandavilli, Apoorva (14 August 2024). "W.H.O. Declares Global Emergency Over New Mpox Outbreak". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  4. Mandavilli, Apoorva (11 May 2023). "W.H.O. Ends Mpox Global Emergency". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  5. Scott, Dylan (24 January 2024). "A deadly new outbreak is testing Africa's ambitious public health efforts". Vox. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  6. Newey, Sarah (16 April 2024). "Mutated strain of mpox with 'pandemic potential' found in DRC mining town". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  7. Cheng, Maria (14 August 2024). "WHO declares mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency as a new form of the virus spreads". Associated Press. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  8. Chibelushi, Wedaeli (30 July 2024). "Central African Republic latest to declare mpox outbreak". BBC News. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  9. "One case of mpox clade I reported in Sweden". www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se. Public Health Agency of Sweden. 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  10. Kirby, Paul (15 August 2024). "First case of more contagious mpox found outside Africa". BBC. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  11. "Första bekräftade fallet av nya mpox-varianten i Sverige". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  12. Junaidi, Ikram (2024-08-15). "NCOC issues advisory as first suspected mpox case quarantined". Dawn. Reuters. Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
  13. "Mpox en RDC: un plan de riposte de 49 millions de dollars et des doses de vaccin attendues". RFI (in French). Radio France International. 2024-08-19. Retrieved 2024-08-20.