The fears are diminishing. Friday, Pakistan reported a first case of MPOX on its territory, diagnosed with a 34 -year -old patient and ” Coming from a Gulf country ». After a genetic sequencing, the country’s health authorities announced on Monday that it was not the strain that is currently raging in Africa, reports Le Figaro.
“” The virus belongs to the Clade 2B subtype “The Pakistani Ministry of Health announced by press release. “” Currently, the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is first associated with the Clade 1B. It should be noted that to date, no case of Clade 1B has been reported in Pakistan “Said the ministry.
As a reminder, the 2B variant is responsible for the MPOX epidemic which occurred in 2022. This presented a low lethality rate. Currently, Africa faces the spread of a new strain of the virus, called “Clade 1b”, more transmissible and more deadly than the variant 2B.
A 1B clade case identified in Europe
Sweden announced, Thursday, having recorded a case of a Clade 1B subtype on its territory. A first outside the African continent, this variant being until then present only in some countries in West and the Center. In the process, the World Health Organization alerted Europe to the fact that other cases imported from MPOX were likely to be detected ” In the coming days and next few weeks ».
The MPOX virus, formerly called “monkey variole” or “monkeypox”, was discovered in 1958 in monkeys used for scientific research. A first human case was then observed in 1970 in Zaire, which became the Democratic Republic of Congo. This viral disease spreads from animals to humans but can also be transmitted via close physical contact with a person infected with the virus. In particular, it causes fever, muscle pain, as well as skin lesions.
