Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of the Democratic Republic of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected, and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it. That means there are numerous unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, complicating the response, scientists in Africa, Europe and the US told Reuters. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a public health problem in parts of Africa since 1970, but received little global attention until it surged internationally in 2022, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare a global health emergency.
That declaration ended 10 months later. A new strain of the virus, known as clade Ib, has the world’s attention again after the WHO declared a new health emergency. The strain is a mutated version of clade I, a form of mpox spread by contact with infected animals that has been endemic in Congo for decades.
Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can kill..
