A deadly new strain of ampox that spreads easily between people is killing babies and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and may have spread to neighbouring countries, researchers warn.
“All countries must prepare for this new strain before it spreads to other places before it is too late,” Jean-Claude Udahemuka, a researcher at the University of Rwanda who is studying the outbreak, told AFP.
In 2022, a global outbreak of a new strain of ampox, formerly known as monkeypox, spread to more than 110 countries, affecting mostly gay and bisexual men. This was the Clade II strain.
But outbreaks of the Clade I strain – which is 10 times more deadly – have occurred regularly in Africa since it was first detected in DR Congo in 1970.
While the global outbreak was primarily sexually transmitted, people in Africa usually contracted clade I infections from infected animals, such as by eating wild animal meat.
But Udahemuka told an online press conference that “it was clear there was something different” about the m-Pox outbreak detected among sex workers in Congo’s remote mining town of Kamituga in September last year.
Unlike previous outbreaks in the central African country, this virus was spreading through sex between heterosexuals.
Testing showed it was a mutated version of the original strain, called clade IB.
“This is undoubtedly the most dangerous virus we have ever seen,” Udahemuka said.
Léandre Murhula Masirika, who has led local research into the outbreak, said more than 1,000 cases of Clade IB have since been reported in South Kivu province.
He warned that in Kamituga alone, more than 20 new cases are being reported each week — and the number is rising.
‘Extremely worrying’
Researchers report that 5 percent of adults and 10 percent of children infected with the virus die.
It causes sufferers to have “horrific rashes all over the body,” while lesions in Clade II are restricted to the genital area, said Trudy Lang, a global health researcher at the University of Oxford.
Clade IB viruses are also spreading through non-sexual contact between people — including between families or children playing together at school — which represents a major change from previous outbreaks, the researchers said.
Lang said a “high amount” of transmission has been seen between mothers or caregivers and children.
The species has also caused a number of miscarriages, and researchers are studying its long-term effects on fertility.
These significant differences from previous ampox strains are “incredibly worrying,” Lang said.
He said the severe cases presenting to hospital are likely the “tip of the iceberg,” as many patients probably have less severe symptoms.
Lang cautioned that there are still many “important unknowns” about the new strain. He compared this stage of the investigation to the early days of COVID-19.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 60 percent of the 384 people who died from all ampox species in DR Congo this year were children.
Fear of widespread outbreak
So far, Clade Ib has spread to the Congolese cities of Bukavu, Uvira and Kamanyola – and this week it was also confirmed in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the researchers said.
These cities are near Congo’s borders with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
Murhula Masirika said that although the new strain has not been officially reported outside DR Congo, it has already spread to neighbouring countries. He said some of the infected sex workers came from these countries.
And, noteworthy, Goma also has an international airport.
“There’s definitely a chance it could get on an airplane,” Lang said, calling on the world to act quickly to stop the outbreak.
One way researchers suggest preventing this outbreak is by vaccinating local sex workers.
It remains to be determined whether existing vaccines will work against the new strain.
But Udahemuka said smallpox vaccines — which are cheap, widely available in many countries, and may also work for ampox — have not been made available in Kamituga.
Researchers in Africa are calling on D.R. Congo to be given access to vaccines and treatments used against ampox in much of the world during the global outbreak.
Murhula Masirika warned that if the virus spreads further it would cause “huge damage”.
“We are very scared.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)