Rabat:

Morocco has recorded a case of mpox in the tourist city of Marrakesh, the first in north Africa since the WHO declared an international emergency last month, the Africa CDC said.

“Africa CDC confirms the first mpox case in North Africa for 2024, reported by Morocco’s Ministry of Health” on September 12, a statement on the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention website said on Thursday.

With Morocco, 15 African Union member states have reported cases — now across every region of the continent, according to Africa CDC.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

Sometimes deadly, it causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

The 32-year-old patient from Marrakesh “tested positive and is receiving treatment,” Africa CDC said.

“The Moroccan authorities have activated emergency operations, deployed a rapid response team and begun epidemiological investigations and contact tracing,” the statement added.

Morocco’s health ministry said separately that the patient was receiving care at a specialised medical centre in Marrakesh and was “in a stable health condition that does not give cause for concern”.

So far, nobody who has been in contact with the patient is showing symptoms, the ministry added.

The World Health Organization declared an international emergency on August 14, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that spread to nearby countries.

Africa CDC figures show most of the cases are in Central Africa.

According to the agency, since the beginning of the year, 26,544 cases have been reported in the 15 affected countries, 5,732 of which were confirmed. It said that 724 deaths have also been reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kinshasa:

Democratic Republic of Congo received its first batch of mpox vaccines on Thursday, which health authorities hope will help curb an outbreak that has prompted the U.N. to declare a global public health emergency.

Congo is the epicentre of the outbreak, which has spread to neighbouring countries and elsewhere, but a lack of vaccines in Africa has hampered efforts to stop the spread of the sometimes deadly disease.

A plane carrying doses manufactured by Bavarian Nordic and donated by the European Union touched down in the capital Kinshasa around 13:00 local time (12:00 GMT), Reuters reporters at the airport said.

Congo’s health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba, told reporters the newly arrived vaccine had already proved its worth in the United States and would be rolled out to adults in Congo.

“We know which provinces are heavily affected, notably Equateur and South Kivu… The idea is to contain the virus as quickly as possible,” he added.

This first delivery amounts to 99,000 doses and a further delivery on Saturday will take the total to 200,000 doses, said Laurent Muschel, the head of the EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

Overall, Europe aims to deliver 566,000 doses to wherever needs are greatest in the region, Muschel told Reuters. “Based on the number of cases, the next country (for deliveries) should be Burundi, but the country’s medical agency must authorise it.”

The arrival of the vaccine in Congo should start to address a huge inequity that has left African countries with no access to the two shots used in a 2022 global mpox outbreak, while they were widely available in Europe and the United States.

Congo has said it will launch its vaccination campaign on Oct. 8 to allow time for a thorough awareness-raising campaign to overcome mistrust in some communities.

Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and can kill. There were 19,710 suspected cases of mpox reported in Congo in the first eight months of this year, according to the health ministry. Of those, 5,041 were confirmed and 655 were fatal.

It spreads through close contact, including sexual contact.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Manila:

The Philippines has confirmed two more mpox virus infections of the milder clade 2 variety, its health ministry said Monday, bringing the number of active cases to three.

“We continue to see local transmission of mpox clade II here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular,” Health Minister Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.

The newly confirmed cases were a 37-year-old male in Metro Manila who had rash on his body last week and was brought to a government hospital, and a 32-year-old male from the capital who had skin lesions on his body.

The Philippines announced last week it had detected a case of the mpox virus’ milder variant in a 33-year-old male who had no travel history outside the Philippines.

The three cases this year means the Philippines has had 12 laboratory-confirmed case since July 2022.

The World Health Organization earlier this month declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighbouring countries.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern as it seems to spread easily though routine close contact.

The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can kill, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, all at higher risk of complications.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)