Mpox mutating new strains ‘quickly’ as specialists admit ‘we’re working blind’
Health officials have sounded the alarm bells after admitting they are “working blind” when trying to stop the spread of deadly Mpox.
The concerning spike in Mpox incidents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other African countries has been labelled as a “public health emergency of international concern” by the WHO putting it on par with previous emergencies like Covid-19, Ebola, and the 2022 Mpox outbreak in Europe.
It has also hit the UK, with South London being revealed to be a hotspot for potential Mpox cases in the UK, with Lambeth detecting 10 possible infections and Southwark eight, while figures indicate sightings throughout Manchester, Suffolk, and Yorkshire.
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According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), England saw a total of 269 Mpox cases in the span of 2023 and 2024.
But now officials in Nigeria are panicking, with one declaring that the virus is “mutating” far faster than they had feared.
Dr Dimie Ogoina, an infectious diseases expert at Niger Delta University Hospital told NDTV: “I worry that in Africa, we are working blindly. We don’t understand our outbreak very well, and if we don’t understand our outbreak very well we will have difficulty addressing the problem in terms of transmission dynamics, the severity of the disease, risk factors of the disease.
“And I worry about the fact that the virus seems to be mutating and producing new strains.”
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Earlier this month, Professor Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia claimed that a new strain “may well be here” in the UK due to delays in testing and diagnosis.
Dr Hunter speculated: “If I was to bet, I’d bet on it already being in the country, because by the time you get infected and diagnosed to understand what Clade it is, you’re looking at around two weeks.”
In the past year up to the end of June, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been notified of 90 suspected cases of mpox through statutory notifications of infectious diseases (NOIDs). These NOIDs are crucial alerts that GPs must send to the UKHSA whenever they suspect a case of certain infectious diseases, including mpox, serving as an early indicator of potential outbreaks across various regions.
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