-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Earlier this week, a World Health Organization (WHO) official stressed that the mpox virus is not the new COVID-19, because we know how to handle its spread, but the current outbreak is steadily growing, alarming health experts. It involves two different versions of the mpox virus: one that caused a global outbreak in 2022-2023 and a new, mutated and potentially more deadly strain . So far, most of the cases of the deadlier strain, known as clade Ib, have been on the African content, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On Thursday, Thailand became the second country outside Africa to report a clade 1b case, following Sweden last week. According to BBC , the infected 66-year-old European man had residency in Thailand and arrived in Bangkok from an unnamed African country on 14 August. The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on August 14.
At least 14 African countries have reported cases, with over 1,000 in a week in Congo, prompting African health authorities to plead for vaccines . (The smallpox vaccine works against mpox , as the viruses are related.) Other recently detected cases around the world — in Spain, Taiwan , Pakistan and the Philippines — turned out to be clade II.
Although both versions of the disease result in flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, the Ib strain is generally considered to be much deadlier, killing 1 in 10 people in some outbreaks. On the other hand, Clade II ha.