WHO and scientists call for urgent action against monkeypox strain

The World Health Organization said Tuesday there is an urgent need to combat the spread of monkeypox in Africa, shortly after scientists separately warned of a dangerous strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“There is a critical need to address the recent surge in mpox cases in Africa,” Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for mpox, said in a briefing note to journalists.

In a separate briefing, John Claude Udahemuka of the University of Rwanda, who has been working on an outbreak in Congo’s hard-to-reach South Kivu province, said the strain spreading there – a mutated version of the clade I mpox endemic in Congo for decades – was extremely dangerous.

Monkeypox has fatality rates of around 5% in adults and 10% in children.