The World Health Organization is writing about a “global public health threat.” It's the mpox virus, known as monkeypox. Until now, it was almost exclusively found in Africa, but it has begun to spread dangerously.
The Philippine health minister confirms that the first case of mpox, or monkeypox virus, has been detected in the country this year. What is worrying is that the infected patient had not recently been abroad. This is yet another country outside Africa, after Pakistan and Sweden, where mpox has appeared in recent days. Pakistani health services are on high alert. At airports – as they were a few years ago – everything is being disinfected, and travelers arriving from abroad have their temperatures taken.
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– In the police hospital, we have prepared a seven-bed ward dedicated to patients infected with MPOX. We have an oxygen concentrator, intravenous fluids, antibiotics and antipyretics – everything you need – informs Dr. Muhammad Niaz, head of the police hospital in Peshawar.
The main focus of infection is still areas in central Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, doctors have recorded over 15 thousand cases of mpox this year and over 500 deaths. – There is a major climate crisis, there is also a major terrorist threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is why people in refugee camps gather in large groups and this virus can be easily transmitted – points out Dr. Emilia Cecylia Skirmuntt, an evolutionary virologist from the University of Oxford.
Mpox virus infections in AfricaWHO
Are we facing another pandemic?
The epidemic has already spread to 12 other African countries, including neighboring Burundi. What is surprising is the speed of the virus's spread compared to the strain from two years ago. Back then, people were mainly infected through sexual contact, now it's not only that.
– In Burundi, 70 percent of those infected are children up to 5 years of age, which means direct or indirect contact, for example by using the same towels or clothes – points out Prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska, a virologist from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. People infected with mpox usually have a fever, enlarged lymph nodes, muscle and back pain, and a characteristic rash. The infection can be fatal. A few days ago, the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency with this pathogen. Despite this, epidemiologists reassure us: mpox will not cause another pandemic like COVID-19.
– It is one of the largest viruses that attack humans, so it is relatively heavy and will certainly not spread as droplet-borne as the flu virus or coronavirus – assures Prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska. In addition, we have a vaccine for this group of viruses.
Main image source: Reuters