MPOX UPDATE (06): DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, CHILDREN
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Tue 30 Jan 2024
Source: The Telegraph [edited]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/monkeypox-mpox-outbreak-democratic-republic-of-congo/
Children account for a majority of infections and deaths in the
world’s worst mpox outbreak, which is “accelerating” at a far greater
rate than previously assumed, new figures show.
Mpox is best known for the outbreak that erupted internationally in
2022, predominantly spreading in gay and bisexual men.
But the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is struggling to control a
much deadlier form of mpox, known as clade one, which has been
spreading unchecked in the population for many years.
The scale of the epidemic was outlined in new figures published by the
World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday [29 Jan 2024]: last year
[2023], more than 14 600 infections and 901 deaths were reported in
the central African nation, compared to 5600 cases and 213 fatalities
in 2022.
The data also showed that, in 2023, some 65% of cases and 75% of
deaths were in children under 15 years old, who spread the disease
while out playing with one another.
“What we are seeing is an acceleration of an existing disease that has
long been ignored,” Dr Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for
mpox, told The Telegraph. “We have gone from 1000 per year in 2005 to
2015, to a thousand a month.
“Cases and deaths reported in 2023 are 2.5 to 3 times [higher than]
the reports from 2022, which is a most concerning trend. This suggests
the outbreak has not yet peaked, and given surveillance challenges
there may be more unreported cases.”
There are mounting fears that mpox could spread outside central Africa
if not contained soon. It has already jumped from remote, rainforest
communities to 23 of the DRC’s 26 provinces, and is now gaining a
foothold in major cities, including Kinshasa, the capital.
“If cities are more widely infected, because of the international
movement of the population there, there is a high risk of exporting
the [clade one] variant across borders,” said a Kinshasa-based doctor
involved in the national response, who spoke anonymously to The
Telegraph.
“As long as the DRC continues to report cases, the world will not be
safe.”
Waning immunity