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Explainer | What we know about the new mpox outbreak

  • Analysts are not surprised by its spread and expect more cases to emerge worldwide

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A woman walks past a sign that reads stop monkeypox at a clinic in Munigi, eastern Congo, Friday, August 16. Photo: AP

A surging mpox outbreak in Africa was declared an emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this week and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an EU agency, on Friday said more imported cases to Europe were “highly likely”.

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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared its first-ever Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) for the deadly disease.

It is the second time the WHO has issued its public health emergency warning since the epidemic first spread around the world in 2022.

Now the virus has crossed from its epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to other African nations and was detected this week for the first time in Sweden and Pakistan.

The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in humans in the DRC in 1970.

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There are two subtypes of the virus: clade 1 and clade 2.

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