Following the confirmation of the first cases in the country last month, Burundi’s ministry of health announced on today that 171 cases of Mpox had been confirmed
Originally referred to as monkeypox, mpox is an infectious disease brought on by a virus that can be transferred from person to person by intimate physical contact or from sick animals to people.
Health Minister Polycarpe Ndayikeza informed the reporters, “We already had a cumulative of 171 confirmed positive cases, 137 of which are still active.”
“So far there have been no deaths from mpox in Burundi,” he stated. In late July, three instances of mpox were found in Burundi, and on August 18, the health ministry said that 153 cases had been confirmed. Last month, the ministry declared, “The epidemic continues to gain ground,” and it added that it was constructing up isolation units in district hospitals to handle mpox cases.
The detected cases seem to be the “new variant” that is spreading into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, an official told to media.
Although mpox has been recognized for many years, the recent increase in cases has been caused by a new, more lethal strain called Clade 1b.
According to the World Health Organization, which has declared an international health emergency due to the most recent outbreak, Clade 1b causes death in approximately 3.6 percent of cases, with children being particularly at risk.
In addition to the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, outbreaks have also been found in Asia and Europe, and the number of cases in the region is rapidly increasing.