Lethal Outbreak of New Mpox Strain Erupts in Central Africa
- Genetic changes in variant may have made it more dangerous
- Roads to once-unreachable areas allow virus to move rapidly
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Countries in central Africa are racing to contain a multinational outbreak of a mutated mpox strain that’s killed almost 500 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone since January.
The fast-spreading virus is suspected to have infected more than 12,300 people in 2024 in the DRC, where it was first reported less than a year ago. Recent cases in Ivory Coast, Kenya and at least three other African countries have raised concern of an explosive contagion carried along newly built roads and highways connecting remote mining sites to cities and camps housing hundreds of thousands of conflict-displaced Congolese.