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In 1970 the first mpox case was identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), heralding the worldwide pandemic. In the first of two studies summarized here, researchers analyzed epidemiologic changes in mpox based on case reports from 12 African countries to the Africa CDC from January 2022 through October 2024. Laboratory-confirmed and clinically diagnosed cases were included in a group comprising 45,652 patients. During this period, case reports rose by a factor of 4.3, and the case fatality rate was 3.3%.
In most cases, the infection source was exposure to animal blood, body fluids, and mucosal lesions, primarily in rodents and primates. The mpox virus has two types, clade I and clade II, each with variants (Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb).…