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Mpox: Community responses and lessons learned [1]

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Date: 2024-12

Mpox (previously known as monkeypox) is a viral disease caused by an orthopoxvirus called monkeypox virus. It transmits between humans through close contact with lesions, body fluids, infectious respiratory particles or contaminated materials, or from animals to humans through contact with live animals or consumption of contaminated ‘bushmeat’. Mpox causes signs and symptoms which usually begin within a week of exposure but can start one to 21 days later. Symptoms typically last for two to four weeks but may last longer in someone with a weakened immune system. Normally, fever, muscle aches and sore throat appear first, followed by skin and mucosal rash. Lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes) is also a typical feature of Mpox, present in most cases. Children, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems are at risk of developing complications and dying of mpox.

On 14 August 2024, the WHO Director-General determined that the upsurge of Mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR), the highest level of alarm under the IHR.

The clade Ib Mpox outbreak, which began in September 2023 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is having an increasing number of cases in the country and also expanding to neighboring countries. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have each reported Mpox cases. Additionally, Cote d’Ivoire is reporting cases of clade II Mpox for the first time since the start of the multi-country outbreak in 2022.

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[1] Url: https://www.afro.who.int/media-centre/events/mpox-community-responses-and-lessons-learned

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