Recently, Belgium has confirmed that a case of has been found of the clade 1b variant of mpox virus. With this, Belgium has become the 8th non-African country to report this new variant of infection. The other 7 countries that reported similar types of infection are Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
WHO’s Concern Over Mpox Situation in Africa
As per sources, WHO has called the situation of the mpox virus in Africa “especially concerning”. As per sources, there have been a total of 13,769 cases of mpox cases officially reported in Africa, out of which there have been 60 deaths. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reported the most number of cases ie. 9513 in total officially.
What is Mpox?
It is a viral disease caused by the same virus called mpox, which causes sore body parts with fever and swollen lymph nodes. Symptoms usually last for two to four weeks. The disease can be transferred from an infected animal into humans but the present outbreak in Africa and beyond is completely spreading through person-to-person close contact primarily during sexual acts.
On December 18, 2024; the first case was identified in Belgium in a person who was returning from an African country where this virus was spreading. That person has been isolated and the risk of spreading the virus in Belgium is quite low as of now.
