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- Mpox appears to be spreading through heterosexual contact in the DRC, new research says.
- Infections were detected among sex workers, and people who have had more than one partner.
- The world can now choose to fight it in the DRC, or wait for new variants to be exported, one group warns.
A new mpox (formerly monkeypox) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is linked to sexual behaviour, researchers say, among heterosexual people.
Mpox cases have been seen in 22 of the country's 26 provinces since being first detected in South Kivu in August last year. The responsible variant has been tentatively classified as a novel subgroup, distinct from that which is responsible for previous global outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said since 1 January last year, the DRC had reported 12 569 suspected pox cases and 581 deaths.
A study that has not yet been peer-reviewed has now found a link between cases and sexual contact.
It drew on 51 patients drawn from Kamituga Hospital, of whom 37 (73%) tested positive for mpox. The group was young, with an average age of 24 for men and 19 for women, and 61% said they had been sexually active with more than one partner in the previous six months. Nearly all (92% of the cohort) identified as heterosexual.
Most of the infected people fell into groups considered at high risk of sexual transmission of disease: 47% were sex workers, 10% were gold miners, 12% were students, and 8% were farmers.
READ | Monkeypox mostly spreads before symptoms appear, study suggests
According to the researchers, mpox viral DNA was detected in vaginal, penile, and oral swabs in 73% of the group of patients.
"Heterosexual partners dominated human-to-human contact transmission, suggesting that heterosexual close contact is the main form of transmission in this outbreak," the study found.
"Furthermore, professional sex workers (PSWs) were the dominant occupation among infected individuals, indicating that PSWs and clients may be at higher risk for developing mpox virus infections."
Lack of containment support
The DRC reported its first cases of mpox in humans in 1970, and the country is known for identifying MPXV clade I, the virus's deadliest strand.
In the current outbreak, symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, chills, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and rashes.
According to FIND, a global health non-profit based in Geneva, Switzerland, the lack of testing capacity in the DRC affects efforts to contain the outbreak.
Dr Ayoade Alakija, chairperson of the board at FIND, said:
She added that mpox cases that received more global attention were not in Africa, where the virus regularly occurs.
Failure to address this will lead to another international spread.
"Like the Covid-19 pandemic, the people that are being prioritised for tests, treatment and vaccination are not in the outbreak countries in Africa.
"We can either mobilise resources and fight the deadly mpox outbreak now in the DRC, or we can let the virus continue to spread and fight it when it is imported into other countries," she said.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
