Alarmed by the surge in mpox cases in Africa, the WHO is meeting to whether to trigger its highest alert level over the mpox outbreak sweeping through several African countries. This move comes after a virulent strain of the disease spread rapidly to 16 countries and new countries were affected in 10 days. There have been 15,132 mpox confirmed cases in Africa since the beginning of 2024.
Some of the countries affected are Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. Virologist sets out some of the reasons the mpox outbreaks are so worrying. How many strains of mpox are there and which ones should we be worried about? Mpox is one species of pox virus, such as smallpox and cowpox, characterized by a rash followed by bumps that appear on the skin.
With mpox the bumps then fill with liquid and eventually scab over. As we've come to know through diseases such as COVID-19, viruses change genetically and mutate quite quickly. Mpox is no different, although pox viruses typically mutate much more slowly compared to other viruses such as HIV.
HIV changes approximately every three times that a single virus replicates. There are two strains of mpox—clade I and clade II. Think of them as two big branches on a tree.
Until about five or six years ago, these clades weren't that diverse. Something has changed. These branches are growing and the leaves on the branches are becoming more numerous.
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