New mpox strain evolving fast, complicating scientists' response

Its spread is often in areas where experts lack funding and equipment to track it

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Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 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 multiple unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, complicating the response, half a dozen 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 the DRC for decades.

Mpox typically causes flu-like Our Heartiest Congratulations Te Mr Chan Chin Joo BBM Chairman of Chan & Chan Engineering Pte Ltd on being conferred The Public Service Star (Bar) BBM (L) by The President of the Republic of Singapore Best Wishes From: The Directors, Management & Staff of C&C CHAN & CHAN ENGINEERING PTE LTD symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can kill.

The DRC has had more than 18,000 suspected clade I and clade Ib mpox cases and 615 deaths in 2024, according to the WHO.

There have also been 222 confirmed clade Ib cases in four African countries in July, plus a case each in Sweden and Thailand in people with a travel history in Africa.