According to the Daily Mail, a new strain of monkeypox virus with "pandemic potential" has been detected in a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus comes from a more dangerous form of monkeypox virus, but it has changed to become more transmissible and harder to detect.
New variant of monkeypox emerges in Congolese mining towns, health officials advocate for 'emergency measures'
Scientists have found this worrying news in Kamituga, a densely populated and impoverished town with a high risk of the virus spreading rapidly. So far, 108 cases have been detected in the town.
According to The Telegraph, a recent research paper revealed details about the new variant. Although the paper has not yet been formally reviewed by other experts, it is being studied closely by scientists around the world. The paper highlights the need for the global community to act quickly to prevent another large-scale outbreak of this new monkeypox virus.
"Without intervention, this localized outbreak in Kamituga has the potential to spread both domestically and internationally," the authors write. "In light of the recent monkeypox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we call on endemic countries and the international community to act quickly to avoid another global monkeypox outbreak," they added. ”
Researchers fear that Kamituga's "highly mobile" population could become an ideal environment for the novel virus to thrive. Miners and sex workers often travel back and forth to the town in search of work from neighbouring countries such as Rwanda and Burundi. "Many people who developed symptoms of monkeypox remained in the community and did not seek treatment," the authors noted. ”
Experts warn of challenges to the health infrastructure and call for urgent action
The preliminary report warns that "the local medical infrastructure is not sufficient to cope with a large outbreak." ”
The experts urged the distribution of vaccines and medicines in the region and the strengthening of surveillance and contact tracing measures.
In 2022, monkeypox broke out globally, spreading to more than 100 countries. However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is struggling to control a more deadly virus called "clade 1", which can cause up to 10% of infected deaths.
Last year, the Central African country experienced an unprecedented outbreak that seems to be continuing: in the first three months of 2024 alone, 3,576 people were infected and 264 died, according to the World Health Organization. According to The Telegraph, two-thirds of cases and 85% of deaths occur in children.
Now, a mutant strain of clade-1 virus has emerged in Congolese Kamituga. Kamituga is a poor and densely populated gold-mining town with a highly mobile population, just 170 miles from the Rwandan border. The mutant strain is named Clade 1B, and the virus appears to be more easily spread from person to person, mainly through sexual contact, and has some mutations that cannot be detected by existing tests.
After tracing 241 suspected cases, as well as 108 confirmed cases, the researchers said: "Without intervention, there is a risk that the virus found in Kamituga will spread both domestically and internationally." Given the history of monkeypox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we hope that the international community will act quickly to avoid a global monkeypox outbreak. ”
The monkeypox outbreak in Kamituga is considered to have "pandemic potential", meaning that there is a significant risk that the outbreak will spread outside of the current area and cross national borders. The virus had never been reported in the region before, but now it has emerged and is also circulating in urban centres, with the mutant (clade 1b) mainly infecting adults, especially sex workers.
The mutant strain is found in highly mobile populations, including miners and sex workers, who often travel to Kamituga from nearby Rwanda and Burundi to work.
"The level of local health care in Congo is not adequate to deal with a pandemic, and if we want to stop the spread of this new virus, urgent actions such as surveillance, contact tracing, and targeted vaccinations are needed.
"There is a risk of mutant strains spreading to other countries, and the best way to prevent this risk is always to control it at the source," the researchers said. But eventually, if cases in Congo increase and spread throughout Africa, we're going to see more cases exported. "The lethality of the mutant strain (clade 1b) is currently unknown.