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largeONGTON (AP) — The World Health Organization declared a global emergency Wednesday over a smallpox outbreak in Congo and elsewhere in Africa, with confirmed cases of the virus in children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading.
Few vaccine doses are available on the continent.
Earlier this week, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared an African swine fever outbreak that has killed more than 500 people a public health emergency and called on the international community to help stop the spread of the virus.
“This is something that should concern us all… The potential for further spread of the virus in Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Africa CDC previously said that monkeypox has been found in 13 countries this year, with more than 96% of cases and deaths occurring in Congo. Compared with the same period last year, cases have increased by 160% and deaths by 19%. So far, there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths.
“We are now in a situation where (MPox) poses a threat to more neighboring countries in Central Africa and beyond,” said Salim Abdul Karim, a South African infectious disease expert and chair of the Africa CDC’s emergency response team. He said the mortality rate of the new MPox spreading from Congo appears to be about 3-4%.
In 2022, the WHO declared MPox a global emergency after it spread to more than 70 countries where it had not previously been reported, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men. Less than 1% of the population died in that outbreak.
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