By Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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THURSDAY, Aug. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) — U.S. doctors should be on the lookout for a more severe strain of mpox that is spreading widely in parts of Africa, federal health officials warned Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0alert<\/a>,\u00a0issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came just hours after the World Health Organization’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0that he will be gathering a group of advisers to decide whether the mpox outbreak in Africa should be declared a public health emergency of international concern.<\/p>\n Cases of what is known as the clade 1 strain of mpox haven’t yet been reported outside of central and eastern Africa, the CDC noted in its alert. But the likelihood of additional spread prompted the agency to recommend that doctors in this country consider this more dangerous strain of mpox in patients who have recently been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or any neighboring country (Angola, Burundi, Central Africa).<\/p>\n Still, “due to the limited number of travelers and lack of direct commercial flights from DRC or its neighboring countries to the United States, the risk of clade I mpox importation<\/a><\/ins>\u00a0to the United States is considered to be very low,” the CDC added.<\/p>\n The latest mpox strain is different from the one that spread globally in 2022, which mainly affected men who have sex with men. Those cases have since decreased significantly in the United States, NBC News<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, mpox cases have soared by 160% in Africa this year, as a lack of both vaccines and treatments hamper efforts to slow the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n In a report<\/a> released by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, officials said mpox has now been detected in 10 African countries this year, including Congo, the country that has been the center of the latest outbreak. That nation has seen more than 96% of all cases and deaths. Even more troubling, nearly 70% of Congo cases have been in children under the age of 15, who also accounted for 85% of mpox deaths.<\/p>\n Doctors Without Borders have called the expanding mpox outbreak in the Congo \u00e2\u0080\u009cworrying.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u0080\u009cThere is a real risk of explosion, given the huge population movements in and out,\u00e2\u0080\u009d Dr. Louis Massing<\/a>, the group\u00e2\u0080\u0099s medical director for Congo, said in a statement<\/a>. \u00e2\u0080\u009cWe can only plead \u00e2\u0080\u00a6 for vaccines to arrive in the country and as quickly as possible so that we can protect the populations in the areas most affected.”<\/p>\n So far this year, there have been an estimated 14,250 mpox cases in Africa, almost as many as were reported in all of 2023. Compared to the first seven months of 2023, cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19%, to 456.<\/p>\n The countries of Burundi and Rwanda both reported mpox cases for the first time last week, and outbreaks have been declared in Kenya and\u00a0the Central African Republic, the Associated Press<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, scientists reported<\/a> the emergence of a\u00a0new and deadlier version of mpox in a Congolese mining town. Mpox spreads through close contact with infected people, including via sex.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, an analysis of patients hospitalized from October to January in eastern Congo suggested that the recent genetic mutations seen in the virus were triggered by its rapid spread in that country, the AP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Last month, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations<\/a> announced it was starting a\u00a0study in Congo\u00a0and other African countries next month to see if giving people an mpox shot after<\/em> they have been exposed to the virus could help prevent severe illness and death.<\/p>\n According to the CDC, mpox symptoms can include: rashes on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals; fever; chills; swollen lymph nodes; fatigue; muscle aches and backache; headache; and respiratory symptoms like sore throat, nasal congestion and cough.<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n