Geneva - Saba:
About 14,700 confirmed cases of monkeypox, including 66 deaths, were recorded in 20 African countries, from January 2024 to January 5, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday, as confirmed cases represent only a subset of suspected cases.
WHO had previously stated that a large number of suspected cases of monkeypox have not yet been tested and "therefore are never confirmed" in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, due to limited diagnostic capacity.
In its latest report, the UN organization said the ongoing outbreak is attributed to several variants of the virus, including the "Clade IB" variant, which is mostly spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries, according to the new Chinese news agency "Xinhua".
It is noteworthy that the disease "Empox", also known as monkeypox, was first discovered in laboratory monkeys in 1958. It is a rare viral disease that is usually spread through body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials. This disease usually causes fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.
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