Mpox: the fear of a new pandemic

October 19, 2024

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A recent outbreak of MPOX has prompted the WHO to launch a large-scale vaccination plan for at-risk populations in Central Africa. Because the new strain identified could indicate greater contagiousness of the virus. Decryption.

rash

One of the main symptoms of mpox infection, besides fever and muscle pain, is a skin rash. Here in Kavumu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the disease, on August 24.

GLODY MURHABAZI / AFP

This article is taken from the monthly Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche ndeg932, dated October 2024.

New pandemic in sight? In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an increase in cases of mpox, official code name for monkeypox (Monkeypox in English), has set off alarm bells at the World Health Organization (WHO). To the point of declaring the disease, on August 14, a public health emergency of international concern, and thus launching a strategic plan aimed at stopping once and for all outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of mpox. This viral infection endemic in Africa had already worries the whole world in 2022, when an epidemic outbreak had affected more than 100,000 people in around a hundred countries, including nearly 3,000 in France.

Mpox Monkey pox Vaccination Pandemic