After Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and Belgium since this summer, it is France's turn to detect a case of a new Mpox variant, clade 1b “on national territory, in Brittany”indicated, Monday January 6, the Ministry of Health. The woman who tested positive was diagnosed at Rennes University Hospital, according to the local newspaper West France. Elle “would be doing well”says the daily without citing a source. This disease is characterized by skin lesions, such as pustules, high fever and muscle pain.
“The reported case concerns a person who has not traveled to Central Africa, an area in which the different clades of Mpox virus have been actively circulating for several months, including clade 1b,” specifies the press release. “This person, however, was in contact with two people returning from Central Africa, investigations are underway to find the origin of the contamination and identify all the contact persons,” he adds.
A case detected “thanks to the surveillance system in place”
“The occurrence of this case in France was quickly detected thanks to the surveillance system in place,” explains the ministry, recalling that “sporadic cases, linked to countries with more intense viral circulation, may occur”.
Moreover, Public Health France had noted 215 cases of Mpox, all due to clade 2b, in 2024, with an average of 3 cases declared per week at the end of the year. Health authorities recall the importance of vaccination for high-risk populations – including men having homosexual relationships with multiple partners, or sex workers – and as a reactive measure for contact cases. People with close ties to Central African countries where the Mpox virus is actively circulating can also be vaccinated, authorities further indicate.
16,700 people infected in the DRC
If it was in 1958 in Denmark that the virus was discovered in laboratory monkeys, a first human case was detected for the first time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. The disease remained confined to around ten for a long time. of African countries. But in 2022, it began to expand to the rest of the world, including countries where it had never circulated. The virus then spread to 75 countries, infecting 97,000 people and causing more than 500 death.
It was that year that Monkeypox (or “monkey pox”) was renamed Mpox: a rare initiative on the part of the WHO (world health organization) to counter stigmatizing and racist remarks made on social networks. social, targeting African populations, the most affected since the start of the epidemic, and the homosexual community due to the number of men contaminated sexually. However, many other groups are affected.
Thus, two concomitant epidemics are raging. One is caused by clade 1 in central Africa, mainly affecting children. The new variant, clade 1b, strikes adults in another region, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and in neighboring countries. The lethality of this new variant is even higher (3 to 5%) and its transmissibility increased.
And it is the DRC which is the most affected. Of the 18,000 people infected worldwide in 2024, 16,700 were located in this country. In November 2024, the WHO decided to maintain its highest level of alert regarding the epidemic, due to the increase in cases and the countries concerned.
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