The health authority of the Robert Koch Institute reported on Tuesday that an infection with the new clade 1b variant of monkeypox (mpox) has been detected for the first time in Germany.
The infection occurred abroad and was detected last Friday, the institute said, adding that it did not see an increased risk for Germany but was “monitoring the situation very closely.”
Smallpox, a smallpox-related viral disease that causes fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, and a blistering rash, has two main subtypes: clade 1 and clade 2.
As of May 2022, clade 2 spread throughout the world, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States. In July 2022, the WHO declared an international public health emergency, its highest level of alarm over the spread.
Vaccination and awareness campaigns in many countries helped curb the number of cases around the world and the WHO lifted the emergency in May 2023 after reporting 140 deaths out of a total of approximately 87,400 cases.
Epidemic in the Congo
But this year a new epidemic has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to clade 1, which mainly affects children, a new strain, called clade 1b, emerged in the DRC.
Cases of clade 1b have also been recorded in neighboring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, none of which have previously detected mpox. The WHO declared an international emergency in August.
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