Mpox warning as 'worried' expert says virus mutating into new strains faster than expected

Doctors are worried that mpox is spreading faster than expected after it was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) following the emergence of a new strain

Health officials have sounded the alarm, warning the deadly Mpox virus is mutating and spreading faster than expected.

The concerning spike in cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries has been labelled as a "public health emergency of international concern" by the World Health Organisation (WHO) - putting it on par with previous emergencies like Covid-19, Ebola, and the 2022 Mpox outbreak in Europe. A new strain of the virus named Clade 1b is spreading fast and "mainly" through sexual activity, according to the WHO officials.

Doctors in Nigeria are among those worried, 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."

According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), England saw a total of 269 Mpox cases between 2023 and 2024. So far no cases of this new strain of mpox sweeping across Africa have been seen in the UK. A man in Thailand tested positive for the new strain this week, following an earlier diagnosis in Sweden.

Earlier this month, Professor Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia claimed that the dangerous new strain "may well be here" in Britain already 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.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can cause flu-like symptoms including fever and muscle aches, but its most obvious symptom is a skin rash or pus-filled lesions that can last two to four weeks.