More Lethal Mpox Strain Surges In DR Congo


More people have become infected with a deadlier strain of the mpox virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the last year, posing a “global threat” if the virus strain leaves the African country and spreads worldwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

An increase in cases involving the more lethal strain of the mpox virus—broken into two genetically distinct groups called clades—“raises concerns” the virus could spread to other countries, according to the CDC.

Read more…
Source: MSN News


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Uganda: Ebola cases in rise to 9, while 265 others are being monitored under quarantine

    February 11, 2025

    Ebola cases in Uganda have risen to nine, while 265 other people were being monitored under quarantine, health authorities said Tuesday. The nine include the first victim, a male nurse who died the day before the outbreak was declared on Jan. 30. That man remains the only fatality. Eight patients “are receiving medical care and are ...

  • Uganda confirms new Ebola outbreak

    January 30, 2025

    Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of Sudan Ebola Virus Disease (SUDV) in the capital city of Kampala. The announcement was made by the Ministry of Health today following positive tests from three National Reference Laboratories. “Our rapid response teams are fully deployed, contact tracing is underway, and all necessary measures are in place to contain the ...

  • California declared an emergency over bird flu

    December 19, 2024

    California officials have declared a state of emergency over the spread of bird flu, which is tearing through dairy cows in that state and causing sporadic illnesses in people in the U.S. That raises new questions about the virus, which has spread for years in wild birds, commercial poultry and many mammal species. The virus, also known ...

  • Declassified satellite photos reveal impacts of Vietnam War

    December 13, 2024

    During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped more than 8 million tons of bombs and sprayed 74 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Nearly 50 years after the war’s end, the deadly impacts of these campaigns persist: Unexploded ordnance continues to maim and kill, while hot spots of ...

  • Investigation launched into Queensland lab breach, with vials of Hendra virus, lyssavirus and hantavirus missing

    December 9, 2024

    Nearly 100 live samples of the deadly Hendra virus have been lost in a biosecurity bungle at a state-run Queensland laboratory. An investigation has been launched after it was revealed 323 virus samples went missing from Virology Laboratory in 2021 in a “major breach” of biosecurity protocol, Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced on Monday. The material, ...

  • Wuhan lab samples hold no close relatives to virus behind COVID

    December 9, 2024

    After years of rumours that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory in China, the virologist at the centre of the claims has presented data on dozens of new coronaviruses collected from bats in southern China. At a conference in Japan this week, Shi Zhengli, a specialist on bat coronaviruses, reported that none of ...

  • DR Congo: Unknown flu-like disease kills at least 79 people

    December 4, 2024

    At least 79 people have died from an unknown disease that is causing flu-like symptoms in south-western Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry says. The health ministry says the majority of people who have died are between the ages of 15 and 18. More than 300 people have been infected with patients exhibiting symptoms like ...

  • WHO says mpox remains public health emergency of international concern

    November 22, 2024

    The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will keep its alert for mpox at the highest level amid a surge in cases. A WHO committee made up of about a dozen independent experts made the decision at a meeting in Geneva on Friday, three months after the WHO first declared a public health emergency of ...

  • Fourth tourist dies after suspected mass poisoning in Laos

    November 20, 2024

    Australian teen Bianca Jones has become the fourth tourist to have died in a suspected mass poisoning in Laos. The 19-year-old’s family confirmed her death to the media on Thursday. Hours earlier, the US State Department told the media that an American man died in the tourist town of Vang Vieng. Two Danish women, aged 19 ...

  • UK: NHS staff ‘may have treated Covid with poor PPE’

    November 20, 2024

    A former Welsh health minister has said that NHS staff may have treated Covid patients during the pandemic with inadequate PPE. Former first minister Vaughan Gething, who was in charge of the health service from 2016 to 2021, returned to the Covid inquiry to give evidence on Wednesday. The inquiry heard that early PPE stocks ran ...

  • UK: Two new cases of Clade lb mpox detected

    November 5, 2024

    Two new cases of a strain of mpox that is thought to be more transmissable have been detected in the UK, the Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said. This brings the total number of confirmed cases of the Clade lb mpox strain in the country to three. The new cases are household contacts of the first ...

  • First case of Clade 1b mpox strain confirmed in the UK

    October 30, 2024

    The first case of a new, more dangerous strain of mpox has been found in Britain, the UK Health Security Agency has said. The patient, who had recently returned from Africa, has been transferred to a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, the same facility where imported cases of Ebola were ...

  • Biosafety: Laboratory Planning and Preparedness to Mitigate Risk

    October 21, 2024

    Biosafety is focused on reducing the risk of people, animals, and the environment being accidentally exposed to dangerous biological materials such as viruses and bacteria. More formally, biosafety is a risk assessment-based approach to identifying and mitigating the risks posed by dangerous biological materials with the goal of reducing those risks to a level that ...

  • Marburg virus death toll in Rwanda rises to 11 as travellers in Germany test negative

    October 3, 2024

    Eleven people have died in Rwanda as the African country continues to fight an outbreak of Marburg virus. The Rwandan government said there were 36 confirmed cases of the virus in its latest update, with 25 people in isolation. Two people were also isolated in Germany this week to be tested for the virus after they ...

  • Genetic ghosts suggest Covid’s market origins

    September 19, 2024

    A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak. They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, China, in January 2020. The results identify a shortlist of animals – including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats – as ...

  • Africa CDC urges Western countries to boost funding for mpox response

    September 12, 2024

    The head of the African Union’s health agency has called on Western countries to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and not abandon Africa amid an ongoing mpox outbreak. Dr Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said on Thursday that 107 new deaths and 3,160 new cases had been ...

  • Philippines reports new mpox case with no history of foreign travel

    August 19, 2024

    The Philippines has reported a new case of the mpox virus, the first in the country since December. Health officials said on Monday that the patient, a 33-year-old Filipino male from capital Manila, has no history of foreign travel. The latest case was detected by heightened government surveillance following the outbreak in Africa reported by the ...

  • Sweden reports first case of more dangerous mpox virus outside Africa

    August 15, 2024

    Sweden has reported the first confirmed case outside Africa of the more deadly mpox variant that sparked the World Health Organization to declare a global public health emergency a day earlier. The person was infected during a stay in a part of Africa affected by the mpox outbreak, a statement from the Public Health Agency of ...

  • WHO declares mpox virus a public health emergency of international concern

    August 14, 2024

    The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the rise in mpox cases constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), following advice from members at Wednesday’s International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee meeting. A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under international health law. The WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called ...

  • UK: Urgent tests under way on canal sodium cyanide spill

    August 14, 2024

    Public health bosses say they hope to start reducing restrictions “very quickly” on a 12-mile stretch of canals in the West Midlands following a toxic chemical spillage. Sodium cyanide, which can cause seizures, vomiting and loss of consciousness, was confirmed on Tuesday as the chemical spilled into the waterway in Walsall. People have been urged not ...

  • Mpox Declared A Public Health Emergency In Africa

    August 13, 2024

    Due to the alarming surge in cases of mpox (formerly referred to as monkeypox), the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the disease a public health emergency on Tuesday. There have already been 17,500 mpox cases and 460 deaths in Africa in 2024, more than were recorded all of last year. The severity of ...

  • Mpox cases spike by 160% across Africa

    August 1, 2024

    African health officials said mpox cases have spiked by 160% in the last year, warning the risk of further spread is high given the lack of effective treatments or vaccines on the continent. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released Wednesday that mpox, also known as monkeypox, has now been ...