Another global emergency involving mpox is unfolding, with cases spreading from Africa now springing up across the globe, an echo of the viral crisis two years ago. But this time around, things are different, with a mutated strain of the mpox virus that seems to be more contagious — and more deadly, threatening to become a pandemic on par with COVID-19.
The crisis first attracted attention earlier this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where most cases are currently concentrated. But it soon began to spill over into at least 13 neighboring countries. In late June, health authorities first rang alarm bells over a new strain of mpox, clade Ib, spreading through the North and South Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Scientists believe it mutated from the lineage called clade II that impacted the U.S. and other Western countries in 2022.
