LONDON (AP) — The rising mpox outbreaks in Africa that triggered the World Health Organization’s emergency declaration are largely the result of decades of neglect and the global community’s inability to stop sporadic epidemics among a population with little immunity against the smallpox-related disease, leading African scientists said Tuesday. According to Dr. Dimie Ogoina, who chaired WHO’s mpox emergency committee, negligence had led to a new, more transmissible version of the virus emerging in countries with few resources to stop outbreaks.
Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Nigeria and elsewhere before the disease prompted the 2022 outbreak in more than 70 countries, Ogoina said at a virtual news conference. “What we are witnessing in Africa now is different from the ,” he said. While that outbreak was overwhelmingly focused in gay and bisexual men, mpox in Africa is now being spread via sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.
And while most people over 50 were likely vaccinated against smallpox — which may provide some protection against mpox — that is not the case for Africa’s mostly young population, who Ogoina said were mostly susceptible. Mpox belongs to the like fever, chills and body aches. It mostly spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including sex.
People with more serious cases can develop prominent blisters on the fac.
