Mpox May Lead to Next Global Pandemic, Know More About It

The WHO has now declared the current upsurge of mpox in central Africa a public health emergency of international concern. It is feared that if neglected it may suddenly pose unexpected global threats.

Mpox was discovered in 1958 in monkeys, so it was popularly known as “monkeypox”. The first human infection of Mpox virus was identified in 1970. For decades it was considered as an uncommon infection in remote rural areas in tropical Africa without any concern for the rest of the world.

When a massive mpox outbreak hit developed countries in 2022, increased research funding led to a surge in scientific studies.

It is feared that, Mpox, which is being thought as an infectious disease in one corner of the world, can suddenly start to spread fast and far.

The disease has been renamed “mpox” but the name of the virus, for now, remains “monkeypox” (MPXV). It is closely related to the smallpox virus.

In 2022, a massive, rapidly evolving global outbreak of Mpox caused over 99,000 laboratory-confirmed cases in 116 countries. At its peak in August 2022, over 6,000 cases were reported each week. Most cases were reported from non-endemic countries, mostly in men who have sex with men who had become infected during recent sexual encounters.

The global outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on 23 July 2022.

Modern vaccines and antiviral drugs with activity against mpox had been developed and stockpiled in the US and Europe for a potential bioweapon attack using a poxvirus.

The African region is experiencing an upsurge in mpox cases which started in 2023.

Most worryingly, ever increasing numbers of MPXV clade Ib infections reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ongoing outbreak has its epicentre in South Kivu province of Congo. This virus is transmitted through human-to-human transmission, often via the sexual route.

Case numbers are rising rapidly, even though many suspected cases are likely not tested and thus not counted as confirmed.

The case fatality rate is higher than it was in the 2022 global outbreak.