06 November, 2024
Some health officials say mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo appear to be “stabilizing.” The observation is a possible sign that the epidemic might be declining.
Mpox is also known as monkeypox. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the viral disease was first identified by scientists in 1958 when outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease appeared in monkeys. Until recently, most human cases involved people in central and West Africa who had contact with infected animals.
Last August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox in Africa a "public health emergency of international concern.”
In recent weeks, the WHO says the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, has reported about 200 to 300 confirmed mpox cases every week. That number is down from nearly 400 cases a week in July. A decrease has also been reported in Kamituga, where the new, more infectious variant of mpox first appeared.
But the U.N. health agency said last week that only about half of suspected infections in the DRC were being tested. And the agency noted that the virus is continuing to spread in some parts of the country and elsewhere, including Uganda.
While doctors are hopeful about the drop in infections in some parts of the DRC, they still do not know what kinds of physical contact are driving the outbreak. Health experts are also concerned about the low number of vaccines the Central African nation has received. The WHO estimates that only 50,000 people have been vaccinated in the DRC, which has a population of about 110 million.
Scientists also say there needs to be an urgent effort to vaccinate all of Africa to halt mpox's spread and avoid worse variants.
“If we miss this opportunity, the likelihood of another significant outbreak increases substantially,” said Dr. Zakary Rhissa, who heads operations in the DRC for the nonprofit group ALIMA.
This year, there have been 43,000 suspected cases in Africa and more than 1,000 people have died, mostly in the DRC.
Rhissa added, “We've seen how past outbreaks, such as the one in Nigeria in 2017, can lead to larger global events if not effectively contained.” The 2017 mpox epidemic affected more than 100 countries.
Rhissa said the decline in cases in Kamituga — where mpox initially spread among sex workers and miners — is an opening to put more programs in place for vaccination, surveillance and education.
Georgette Hamuli is an 18-year-old sex worker. Hamuli said she did not know about mpox until vaccination teams arrived in Goma recently. “The vaccine is also necessary,” she said. “I think we're now protected.”
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated the DRC needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the virus, and another 7 million for the rest of Africa. So far, the WHO and partners have provided 900,000 vaccines to nine African countries affected by mpox and expect 6 million vaccines to be available by the end of this year.
Mpox epidemics in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are believed to have started in the DRC. Several mpox cases affecting travelers have also been identified in Sweden, Thailand, Germany, India and Britain.
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim is an infectious diseases expert at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal. He said mpox outbreaks usually rise and then disappear quickly because of how the virus spreads. This time, however, he said the virus continues to spread through sex and infected animals.
“We're in new territory with mpox this time,” he added. “We're never going to solve this until we vaccinate most of our people.”
I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
Maria Cheng and Ruth Alonga reported this story for the Associated Press. Hai Do adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
stabilize–v. to not get worse; to even out or establish a normal level
epidemic –n. when an infectious disease spreads quickly over a large area
variant –n. a version of an infectious agent that is a little but different from the earlier one
substantially –adv. to a large degree
surveillance –n. closely observing something over a period to see if something bad is happening or going to happen