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suerte gaming Another Pandemic Looms. Guess What? We’re Still Not Ready.
Just one day after the World Health Organization declared the deadly mpox outbreak in Africa a global health emergencysuerte gaming, Sweden reported its first case of a dangerous strain of the disease (and there may be more cases). The threat of a pandemic of mpox is here yet again. To curb this crisis, the affected countries in Africa need tests, vaccines and people to respond. Now.
Cases of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), a viral illness spread primarily through close physical contact, are up 160 percent in Africa compared to the first seven months of 2023. So far this year, over 15,600 cases have been reported and 537 people have died, a majority of them children.
The bulk of the spread, which is fueled by a subtype of mpox believed to cause more severe illness and death, is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a dozen other African countries. This includes countries that hadn’t reported mpox cases previously, such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the reported cases are most likely just the “tip of the iceberg.” Thousands of cases may remain undetected because of cavernous gaps in surveillance, testing and contact tracing.
Sweden’s case is the first of this kind of mpox outside Africa. The person had traveled to an area affected by the disease. While the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control says that the risk of severe disease among the general public remains low, it’s highly likely there could be more imported cases.
We shouldn’t discount the pandemic potential of mpox. If mpox cases were to seed in Europe, there could be rapid and sustained spread. Routine smallpox vaccinations were discontinued after the W.H.O. declared the disease eradicated in 1980. (The United States stopped routine vaccinations in 1972.) This means the world’s population, including in the United States, is relatively naïve to orthopoxviruses — the group of viruses that include mpox and smallpox. Given how effectively mpox can spread through sex and other kinds of close contact, for instance, in homes and hospitals where there’s insufficient protective gear, mpox could become a major threat.
This is the second time the W.H.O. has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. The last time was in 2022, when there was an outbreak of a different type of mpox centered on Europe and the United States, especially among men who have sex with men. It affected nearly 100,000 people and was largely quelled thanks to vaccines and behavior changes.
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