Europe rushes to contain outbreak of new and more deadly strain of mpox

Europe is rushing to contain an outbreak of a new and more deadly strain of mpox which originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On Thursday, Sweden became the first country outside the continent to confirm a case of the more easily transmissible mpox Clade 1b, with Pakistan announcing one on Friday.

The World Health Organization earlier this week declared the spread of the new strain a public health emergency of international concern.

"It is inevitable that this new strain of mpox that started off in 2024 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, but has now spread to at least nine neighbouring countries, will come to the UK because of international travel,” says infectious diseases expert, Professor Chloe Orkin, of the University of London

But, she says that does not mean it will spread widely within the United Kingdom.

“Because in the UK we have the ability to diagnose and do contact tracing and also to provide vaccination to people who have been exposed," she says.

Mpox can be passed on by close contact with anyone with the infection and causes fever, muscle aches, and boil-like skin lesions.

Experts say the new strain is "associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates" than the one that caused the global mpox outbreak in 2022.

World health leaders say a failure to deal with the outbreak is a risk, not just to Africa, but to the whole world.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 10 million doses of mpox vaccines will be needed to respond to the epidemic on the continent.

But supply is extremely limited in the affected region.

Orkin says the declaration of a public health emergency of international concern is helpful, because it allows the vaccine to be emergency licensed in those countries.

“There have been some promises of donations from stockpiles both in Europe and the US. But this is only about 250,000 doses, when actually millions of doses are needed,” she says.

“The company who makes the vaccine is not marketing the drugs in Africa and is saying that it'll rely on donations to these countries.”

For the moment, most of the over 17,000 case report in Africa are in the DRC, but it is yet to receive any vaccines from donors.