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Resubmitted to clarify virus lineage in second paragraph
A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of MPOX have been reported in Africa so far this year, including 1,200 in one week alone, the African Union health agency said Saturday.
The figures represent three different virus strains, including a new, more deadly and contagious lineage, 1b, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Global Health Emergency on Wednesday, its highest alert level.
To date, 3,101 confirmed and 15,636 suspected cases have been reported from 12 African Union member countries, resulting in 541 deaths, for a case fatality rate of 2.89 percent, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the hardest-hit country, where the new lineage-1b strain was first detected in September 2023, reported 1,005 cases (222 confirmed and 783 suspected) and 24 deaths within one week.
Cases have been reported in all 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to about 100 million people.
Neighbouring Burundi has reported 173 cases, of which 39 are confirmed and 134 are suspected, a 75% increase in one week.
The number of cases reported since the start of this year exceeds the total for all of 2023, 14,383, according to the Africa CDC.
The first cases of MPOX outside Africa were recorded this week in Sweden and Pakistan.
The WHO is due to publish the first recommendations from its emergency committee shortly and is also working with NGOs to call for increased vaccine production.
Mpox is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, but can also be transmitted from person to person through sexual contact or close physical contact. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and large, boil-like skin lesions.
Lineage 1b causes a generalized skin rash, whereas earlier variants caused localized lesions around the mouth, face and genitals.
Formerly known as monkeypox, the disease was first detected in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.
The more lethal lineage 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin of Central Africa for decades.
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