A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of ampox have been reported in Africa since the start of the year, with 1,200 cases reported in just one week, the African Union health agency said on Saturday.The figure relates to three variants of the virus, including a new more deadly and contagious clade 1b, which the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared an international health emergency – the agency’s highest level of alert.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that to date, there have been 3,101 confirmed and 15,636 suspected cases reported from 12 African Union member countries, resulting in 541 deaths — a case fatality rate of 2.89 per cent.
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The worst-affected country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the new clade 1b strain was first detected in September 2023, has reported 1,005 cases (222 confirmed, 783 suspected) and 24 deaths in a week.Cases have been reported in all 26 provinces of the DRC, home to around 100 million people.Neighbouring Burundi reported 173 cases – 39 confirmed and 134 suspected – representing a 75 percent rise in a week.
According to the Africa CDC, more cases have been reported since the start of the year than in the whole of 2023, with a total of 14,383 cases.The first cases of ampox outside Africa were reported this week in Sweden and Pakistan.
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The WHO will soon publish its first recommendations by its emergency committee and, in collaboration with NGOs, has also called for accelerating vaccine production.Ampox is a viral disease that can spread from animals to humans, but can also be transmitted from person to person through sex or close physical contact. Symptoms include fever, muscle pains and large boil-like skin lesions
Clade 1b causes a skin rash across the whole body, while previous variants caused localized lesions around the mouth, face, or genitals.
