Reports of monkeypox cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been on the rise in recent years, said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, technical lead for the disease at the World Health Organization, during a news briefing Wednesday.
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DRC is the country most affected by monkeypox and is the only nation that has continually reported cases over the past five decades. The disease surged in the country in 2020, with 6,216 suspected cases and 222 deaths reported, while last year saw 3,091 suspected cases and 83 deaths.
Monkeypox is from the same viral family as smallpox. After smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980 and vaccination against the disease stopped, collective immunity waned and monkeypox cases could be rising as a result, Lewis said.
While the disease is familiar, the way in which it is now spreading — to countries beyond the African continent — is new. There are currently more than 550 cases across 30 countries but no deaths in the global outbreak. Yet about 70 deaths were reported from five African countries this year, Lewis said.
Animal spillover: This upward trend in cases, as seen in DRC, is not unique to monkeypox, said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme. There have also been upticks in Lassa fever cases in Africa and more frequent Ebola outbreaks, which can be linked to climate change.
“There is definitely ecological pressure in the system. Animals are changing their behavior. Humans are changing their behavior,” Ryan said. “We are dealing with the animal-human interface being quite unstable and the number of times that these diseases cross into humans increasing.”
Selective attention: Despite the ongoing transmission in African nations, the global community’s attention only peaked when cases emerged in Europe, Ryan said.
“I certainly didn’t hear that same level of concern over the last five or 10 years,” he said.