The number of cases and affected countries continues to increase, according to a statement released Friday.
The World Health Organization decided Friday to maintain its highest level of alert regarding the mpox epidemic, the number of cases and affected countries of which continues to increase, according to a press release published Friday.
“This decision was taken due to the increasing number of cases and their continued geographic spread, operational challenges on the ground and the need to establish and maintain a coherent response between countries and partners”underlines the press release.
Multiplication of cases in the DRC
“The Director-General of WHO, following the advice of the Emergency Committee of the International Health Regulations, has determined that the resurgence of mpox continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern”the highest health alert level of the organization, which declared this USPPI on August 14 of this year. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the most affected country followed by Burundi and Nigeria.
This disease has long been known under the name “monkey pox”because it is caused by a virus similar to smallpox. But health authorities no longer use this term to avoid racist connotations. Mpox is characterized by skin lesions, such as pustules, high fever and muscle pain. Identified for the first time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970, the disease remained confined to around ten African countries for a long time.
But, in 2022, it began to spread to the rest of the world, particularly developed countries where the virus had never circulated. Two concurrent epidemics are occurring, one caused by clade 1 in Central Africa, mainly affecting children, and another by the new variant, clade 1b, which affects adults in another region, in eastern DRC. , and in neighboring countries.
