A nurse takes a sample from a child declared a suspected case of mpox at a treatment centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2024.
Mpox is a global emergency again. How deadly is it? What are 'clades'? What you need to know | CBC News LoadedA global outbreak of mpox cooled down, but the virus never went away. Now a new form is transmitting throughout parts of Africa, stoking fears of broader spread and raising alarms among top scientists.
Case counts of a serious form of the virus in Congo soared to new heights, hitting more than 15,000 known infections so far this year, along with hundreds of deaths. It's an alarming spike partly fuelled by the spread of an evolving new lineage, which is now showing up in several neighbouring countries for the first time.
The global mpox outbreak in 2022 was dominated by clade II, which typically leads to milder illness and spread around the world through sexual contact.Clade I, in contrast, has long circulated within Congo. It's been linked to more serious disease and higher death rates, but historically spread mainly from infected animals to people in the country's rural regions, often striking vulnerable children.
That's partly because of major differences in the population demographics and the level of healthcare resources in various regions., for example, and the country continues to experience high rates of HIV, both of which could impact disease severity in ways that have nothing to do with the virus itself.
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