mpox

September 15, 2024 12:44 PM

Uganda’s mpox caseload rises to ten – official

The number of mpox infections in Uganda has risen to ten and all of the patients have a strain of the virus, clade 1b, that is more transmissible between people, a health official said on Saturday. The country borders the Democratic Republic of Congo where the current outbreak began in January 2023, making Uganda a particular focus point for health officials. The first two cases in Uganda were confirmed in July. Henry Kyobe, who heads the government's mpox response effort, told Reuters the co...

September 13, 2024 3:57 PM

WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine as first shot against mpox

The World Health Organization said on Friday it had cleared Bavarian Nordic's vaccine as the first shot against mpox. The approval, known as a pre-qualification, is an official list of medicines used as a benchmark for procurement by developing countries. "This first prequalification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa, and in future," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Mp...

September 9, 2024 8:55 PM

West African clade 2 Mpox case confirmed in India: Health Ministry

A man who recently returned from a country experiencing Mpox transmission has tested positive for the virus, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced on Monday. Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the West African clade-2 Mpox virus in the individual, marking this as a travel-related case. In a statement, the Health Ministry emphasized that the case is isolated, akin to the 30 previous Mpox cases reported in India since July 2022. It also clarified that this instance is unrela...

September 9, 2024 3:18 PM

Health Ministry issues advisory on “Mpox” preparedness to states and UTs

The Union Health Ministry has issued an advisory to all states and union territories on precautionary measures for "Mpox," a disease declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). India has yet to report any confirmed cases of Mpox. However, the advisory outlines key public health actions necessary to prevent potential cases or deaths. States and union territories have been urged to widely circulate the Ministry's "Guidelines for Management o...

September 2, 2024 5:25 PM

Mpox patients lack medicine, food, in east DR Congo hospital

Dozens of feverish patients lay on thin mattresses on the floor of a makeshift mpox isolation ward in east Democratic Republic of Congo, as overstretched hospital workers grappled with drug shortages and lack of space to accommodate the influx. Congo is the epicentre of an mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared to be a global public health emergency last month. Vaccines are set to arrive within days to fight the new strain of the virus, while Congo's President Felix Tshiseke...

August 27, 2024 1:39 PM

New mpox strain is changing fast; African scientists are ‘working blindly’ to respond

Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of Democratic Republic of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it. According to scientists in Africa, Europe, and the United States, the situation is complicated by multiple unknowns about the virus, including its severity and modes of transmission, which complicates the response efforts. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a publ...

August 24, 2024 1:42 PM

Uganda confirms two more cases of mpox

Uganda has confirmed two more mpox virus infections, bringing the number of cases in the east African country to four, according to the health ministry. The two new patients were infected with the clade 1b strain of the virus, health ministry director general of health services Henry Mwebesa told Reuters, a new offshoot that has triggered global concern. The World Health Organization declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency after the new variant, which appears to s...

September 16, 2024 4:02 PM

India heightens alert as Mpox cases rise globally, meeting held with health experts

The central government has directed airport, ports and border authorities to remain vigilant in response to the global rise in Mpox cases, according to sources. Official sources told, "We have alerted airports, ports and borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan. Three central hospitals will have facilities for isolation like Safdarjung hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and Lady Hardinge." As per sources, the Union Health Ministry held meetings with experts on the new virus scare which "is differ...

August 17, 2024 2:57 PM

Why has mpox been declared a global health emergency?

The World Health Organization has declared that an outbreak of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact, represents a global health emergency for the second time in two years. Here's what that means. WHAT IS A GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY? A "public health emergency of international concern" or PHEIC is WHO's highest form of alert. It is announced when diseases are spreading in new or unusual ways, and is aimed at galvanising international co-operation and funding to tackle an ou...

June 25, 2024 5:19 PM

WHO, scientists warn on mpox strain in Congo

The spread of mpox in Africa needs to be addressed urgently, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as scientists warned separately of the dangers of a new strain spreading in a hard-to-reach part of Democratic Republic of Congo. "There is a critical need to address the recent surge in mpox cases in Africa," said Rosamund Lewis, the WHO's technical lead for mpox, in a briefing note to journalists. In a separate briefing, John Claude Udahemuka of the University of Rwanda, who has been w...