While a mysterious illness rages and kills many people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country also faces a new, more transmitted change in the CLADE 1A variant of MPOX.
- In the context of MPOX, an infectious viral disease, the Clade 1A variant is considered to be more deadly and capable of causing a more serious illness than the Clade 1B or the Clade 2.
- Recently, a new mutation, called Apobec3, of the Clade 1a variant, which makes it more transmitted, has been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- “The mortality rate observed in Kinshasa, where the new variant of the CLADE 1A co-circular with the Clade 1B, remains less than 1 %”, reassures a virologist of the WHO health emergency program.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the emergence of new changes in MPOX variants, an infectious viral disease, has been detected. Currently, it is the variant of the Clade 1a bearing the accommodation apobec3 which worries the health authorities, according to The Center for Research and Policy on Infectious Diseases. As a reminder, the CLADE 1A is the oldest clade which has been linked to infections in animals and to an interhuman transmission limited in endemic areas. Clade 1A is considered to be more deadly and capable of causing a disease more serious than the Clade 1B or the Clade 2.
MPOX: The Apobec3 mutation, a factor that would make the variant more transmitted
This new mutation of the MPOX Clade 1a variant “has a high higher transmissibility potential”, According to African Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases (Africa CDC). Ngashi Ngongo, who heads the incident management team related to African CDC MPOX, said the APOBEC3 transfer was already known. Indeed, it has already been observed in the CLADE 1B variant of MPOX, which has become more transmissible and has spread beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo to several neighboring countries of Central and Eastern Africa, as well as in the United Kingdom, in Europe and Asia.
Questioned by The TelegraphLorenzo Souffii, virologist of the Health Organization for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that higher mortality rates have not been observed so far with the new strain of the Clade 1A variant. “Although this variant can spread outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the mortality rate observed in Kinshasa, where the new variant of the Clade 1A co-circular with the Clade 1B, remains less than 1 %, that is to say much lower than what was thought to be the mortality of Clade 1A.”
MPOX epidemic is still an emergency of international health of international scope
Before the discovery of this transfer, the WHO had announced, during a meeting of its emergency committee of MPOX, that the situation linked to MPOX still justified an emergency of public health of international scope. The health authority declared, for the first time, the urgency of public health of international scope linked to MPOX in August 2024 during an increase in cases in Africa, some of which involved the spread of the new Virus of the Clade 1B. “Complex epidemics in Africa mainly involve the spread of viruses from Clade 1A and 1B, with a certain appearance of the Clade 2 virus which has spread.” During the last meeting, the organization changed its temporary recommendations for affected countries, which include those that report sporadic cases related to travel.
