Not surprisingly, health officials are calling for urgent measures to contain the virus. Sound familiar?

A concerning new strain of mpox with “pandemic potential” has been found in a mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to new research.

The paper – a pre-print which has not yet been peer-reviewed, but is being pored over by global experts – calls for “swift action” from the international community if another international mpox outbreak is to be averted.       

Mpox sparked a global epidemic in 2022, when it spread to more than 100 countries, predominantly affecting gay and bisexual men. But the DRC is struggling to control a much deadlier form of the virus, known as “clade 1”, which kills up to 10 per cent of those infected. 

According to the Telegraph, the manuscript’s scientists are concerned about the spread of this kind of strain asserting its a global issue.

… “This is not just a Congo-centric issue, this is not just a sub Saharan Africa issue, this is a global issue. As we saw in May 2022, we’re all interlinked.”

The pre-print warns that the “local healthcare infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle a large-scale epidemic”, and calls for urgent action – including surveillance, contact tracing and targeted vaccinations – to halt the spread of the new stain. 

It says there is a “substantial risk of outbreak escalation beyond the current area and across borders” because the mutations have emerged within a “highly mobile” population. People, including miners and sex workers, frequently travel to Kamituga for work, including from nearby Rwanda and Burundi. 

The mpox diseases was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during 1970 and the scientific study reveals that less than 2% of infected patients they examined died from this new virus strain. As concerning as recent events are, recommendations previously used to prevent or outright stop the spread of STD”s is the best way to deal with this recent version of mpox.

Like what’s happened with the avian super flu, the illnesses and deaths associated with this new monkeypox variant are unfortunate and concerning, but (despite any efforts on the part of the media and Biden administration) it is unlikely the virus will result in spreading quickly enough to be considered a pandemic.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay