Mpox outbreak spreads in Africa with Burundi reporting 100 cases: WHO

By Antony Sguazzin

Burundi reported 100 cases of mpox caused by a fast-spreading subvariant that’s triggered an outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said. 

The cases, 28 per cent of which were in children under five, have been reported since July in multiple districts, the WHO said in a statement after the first meeting of a committee to evaluate the the virus outbreak in Africa.  

Mpox in Burundi will raise concern about the potential of the subvariant, clade Ib, to spread out of eastern Congo, where it has infected children and sex workers around the busy gold mining hub of Kamituga, close to the border with Burundi. 

Cases have also been reported in nearby Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda but no outbreak outside Congo to the extent of Burundi has been found. 

Concern about the Congo outbreak has been triggered by the apparent ease of human-to-human transmission through both sexual and other close contact. While mpox has been around for decades, the variant endemic to the region has previously jumped from animals to humans before quickly petering out. 

The disease, which the Congolese government has said is killing 3.5 per cent of those it infects, causes lesions that can also results in blindness and disfigurement.