The last time I reported on monkeypox, the virulent, more transmissible strain known as “Clade 1b” was reported in Los Angeles County. Unlike other cases of this type of mpox, these cases were locally acquired and did not involve travel to areas of Africa with significant outbreaks.
While there have been no new updates or reports of further cases in Los Angeles, Clade 1b mpox is on the rise in Europe, and there is a major push to increase vaccination rates.
Cases of a potentially lethal variant of the mpox virus have been spreading across countries in Europe, hospitalising victims amid a rush to procure vaccines.At least 45 cases of the clade 1b mpox variant have been recorded across the continent since August, when the WHO classified the outbreak as a global health emergency. Clade 1b poses a particularly dangerous threat, with a reported mortality rate as high as 10 per cent in children.Outbreaks of the more threatening variant have surged in central Africa in recent years, but Europe has now started to record cases by the dozen after an international “failure” to deliver vaccines to the populations most at risk, experts say.
In large part, the alarm is being sounded because, as in LA County, the European cases are also locally acquired. At least the health official issuing the statement was honest about the population most at risk.
“The situation has changed drastically in Europe since the end of August,” Dr Karagiannis said. “We now have local transmission among people with no travel history and, most notably, within men who have sex with men”.In Britain and Europe, the mpox vaccine – which is a variation of the smallpox jabs given routinely to children until the 1970s – is now offered to gay and bisexual men, healthcare workers in high-risk environments like sexual health clinics, and people who have had close contact with people who are already infected.The jab, which is given in two doses, offers around 80 per cent protection and means those who do catch the virus will experience a milder illness.Clade 1b is thought to cause more severe disease than other types of mpox, with symptoms including a lumpy rash of pus-filled lesions, fever, aches and, in some cases, death. It has also been linked to dangerous complications for pregnant women including miscarriage.
After 16 cases of Clade 1b mpox were reported in England, British health officials issued a warning and urged vaccination.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is aware of small numbers of locally acquired cases of an mpox strain called ‘clade Ib’ in the USA, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal, which have no connection to countries with known transmission.The health agency said this suggests there is now community transmission of the disease globally.Most of the new cases identified in Europe and the USA have been in the gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men community – a population in which it said transmission of that strain has not previously been observed.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a 10-case outbreak has been reported in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Mecklenburg County Health Department says Mpox cases are on the rise.Officials say it’s due to a new strain of the virus. Ten cases have been reported in the Charlotte area since October.Mpox is primarily spread through close contact with an infected person. Symptoms include fever, aches, lesions, and rash.
At present, there is no public information on the specific strain of the Charlotte mpox virus.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY