Latest news with #mpox
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Sierra Leone seeks help for growing mpox outbreak
20,000 vaccine doses are expected to arrive today, destined for high-risk contacts including healthcare workers. (AP pic) FREETOWN : Sierra Leonean authorities have called for international help to curb the spread of mpox in the country as a new toll yesterday showed the number of cases continuing to rise. A total of 3,350 cases have been recorded since January in the West African country, including 1,779 recoveries and 16 deaths, up from 3,011 cases a week earlier, according to an official report seen by AFP. That was a smaller increase than the nearly 50 percent rise in registered cases since the previous update on May 13. 'We appreciate our development partners and we will continue to ask for their assistance for the necessary resources to respond to the rising cases of mpox in the country,' deputy health minister Charles Senessie told AFP on Friday. 'We are working rounding the clock to bring this pandemic under control, and we will continue to give the necessary human, financial and logistical resources to our health workers so that they can work effectively,' Senessie said. Vice President Mohamed Juldeh and Senessie visited a new mpox treatment centre with a capacity of 400 beds opened in Freetown on Thursday. Foday Sahr, director of the public agency in charge of combating the disease, said 20,000 vaccine doses are expected to arrive today, destined for high-risk contacts including healthcare workers. A total of 42,872 healthcare workers on the front lines of the fight against the disease have been vaccinated so far. Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox, manifesting itself in a high fever and skin lesions. First identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, the disease had generally been confined to a dozen African countries before spreading more widely from 2022. The WHO declared its highest level of alert in 2024 over that outbreak. Other African countries have seen rising cases of mpox, with thousands of cases notably afflicting Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya.
SBS Australia
6 days ago
- General
- SBS Australia
Australia records first case of clade 1b mpox, joining six other non-African countries
Australia has recorded at least 1,726 cases of mpox since 2022. Source: Getty / Nih-Niaid/BSIP/Universal Images Group Australia has recorded its first case of the mpox variant that typically causes more serious illness. The Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed a case of mpox clade 1b in NSW earlier this month — the first, and so far only, case of this variant in Australia. The case was a returned traveller, and the risk of further transmission was low, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said. SBS News has contacted the NSW Department of Health for comment. Mpox is a viral zoonotic disease, and comes from the same family as the one responsible for smallpox. It is divided into two clades, clade 1 and clade 2, and further into two subclades: 1a and 1b, and 2a and 2b. Historically, clade 1 is more likely to cause severe illness and death than clade 2. Mpox is endemic to parts of central and West Africa, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in 2022, a global outbreak of clade 2 occurred, which is ongoing. There have been 1,726 confirmed cases of mpx across Australia since 2022, according to the Department of Health's National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. The majority of these (1,409) were recorded in 2024, and there have been 147 cases so far this year. Until the recent clade 1b case, reported infections in Australia have been caused by mpox clade 2b, the CDC states. It says most of these infections were locally acquired. It says mpox clade 1b infections were previously isolated to Central Africa but have since been recorded elsewhere. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists a small number of countries outside Africa where clade 1b cases have been recorded, including, along with Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Thailand, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland. It says reported cases in these countries are linked to travel and not local transmission. More than half of the 32,953 reported clade 1b cases recorded in parts of Africa since January 2024 have been recorded in Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the WHO. The CDC acknowledges clade 1 has generally been considered to cause more severe disease, but recent data suggested clade 1b — first discovered in 2023 — has a fatality rate similar to clade 2b. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes recent outbreaks have seen "much lower death rates". Signs and symptoms can include a distinctive rash or lesions, swollen lymph nodes, headache or fever, muscle aches, joint pain, back pain, chills and exhaustion. The virus can be transmitted through intimate or prolonged physical contact, close contact with rashes on the skin, body fluids (including droplets from coughing or sneezing) and contaminated objects such as linen and towels. Symptoms typically clear after two to four weeks for most people, but some can become seriously ill. The Department of Health says most cases in Australia have been identified in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, but anyone can be affected. It says that most infections are mild. Eligible groups can receive free vaccinations against mpox, with no Medicare card required. Vaccination is recommended for men who have sex with men, sex workers, and healthcare and laboratory staff at risk of exposure. Those who have close physical contact with an infected person or are immunocompromised are also considered high risk. Anyone at risk who plans to travel to a country experiencing a significant outbreak should be vaccinated four to six weeks before travelling. The best time for people to receive the vaccine is before they are exposed to mpox.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Malawi battles mpox as cases of the infectious disease surge in Africa
Malawi's ministry of health has announced three new cases of mpox in the capital, Lilongwe, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 11 since the country's first was reported in April. Malawi is one of 16 countries in Africa reporting mpox outbreaks as health officials battle with vaccine shortages as well as limited testing and hospital capacity. The Public Health Institute of Malawi said the patients were aged between 17 and 41. 'Investigations are under way to establish the possible source of infection and trace contacts,' the department said in a statement last week. The first cases in Malawi come after US government aid cuts to healthcare, including HIV programmes, badly hit the country and raised fears of an escalation of infectious diseases. HIV medication programmes have been severely depleted by the cuts, said Richard Mvula, spokesperson for the Lilongwe district health office. 'A commonality about these cases is that some were immunocompromised,' he said, adding that people who had been on ART (antiretroviral therapy) had stopped taking their medication because of shortages brought about by the US cuts. HIV can worsen the risk and severity of mpox, while effective HIV treatment can help manage the risk. People living with HIV, especially those with uncontrolled viral loads, may experience a more severe form of mpox. Malawi had been on alert since the global mpox outbreak began in 2022 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and several other African countries. The news of the first cases last month prompted fears of an outbreak. While most cases have been restricted to Lilongwe, a two-year-old was found with the condition in Mangochi district, about 150 miles (240km) from the capital. While recorded cases remain low in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, mpox has surged in the region overall. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reports 52,082 cases since the beginning of 2025, with more than 1,770 deaths during the outbreak as a whole. In a briefing to journalists last week, Africa CDC officials said they were seeing different patterns of transmission between countries. In Sierra Leone, where cases are rising 'exponentially', the clade IIb form of the virus is circulating. In the DRC and its neighbours it is clade Ia and Ib that dominate. They said the continent would need about 6.4m doses of vaccine, but was still far from having that available, with only 1.3m received so far. They also highlighted a lack of testing capacity in many countries, and warned that in Sierra Leone patients were being treated two to a bed. Malawi's health system faces many challenges, including long distances to clinics, insufficient funding, a shortage of equipment and a lack of qualified personnel. In March this year, the Joint UN Programme on HIV and Aids drew attention to the immediate risks of the US funding cuts on HIV programmes in Malawi. The programme cited thousands of HIV prevention drugs (PrEP) which were expiring. It said the government has instructed the remaining implementer to continue with the scaling up of injectable PrEP but to only recruit new pregnant and lactating women. The US government had been providing more than $350m (£282m) to Malawi annually, according to the US Department of State. Knowledge of mpox around the country is low, reminiscent of the Covid-19 outbreak where myths were rife and people resorted to tree leaves and herbs to cure the symptoms. Thousands of people died. A series of interviews across the capital showed most people have no knowledge of mpox. In central Lilongwe, taxi driver Steven Banda outlined what he knew. 'I came across an official from the ministry of health who was explaining about it and advised that we should be careful since it is dangerous. She described the symptoms including swellings, and mentioned some of the districts affected. I'm not aware of any cases in my area or seen anyone suffering from the disease. We don't know much about it,' he said. Dr Victor Mithi, the president of Malawi's Society of Medical Doctors, said there is need for significant vigilance among practitioners within hospitals to make sure that 'as we perform our day-to-day clinical procedures, we are able to screen those patients that may be having this condition'. 'It is a big concern because in Malawi, most people live in crowded houses and still believe that as a form of expression of love, you need to shake hands, you need to hug people and all those things which are basically the risk factors in the transmission of this disease.' Mithi said that with the lessons drawn from Covid-19 and other infectious diseases, Malawi had the capacity to manage mpox, at clinical and community level. 'The challenge exists though because of the withdrawal of the US aid; the capacity of our healthcare system is no longer the same. Almost 60% of our healthcare system is donor dependent, of which more than 50% of the donor aid was coming from [the US]. So the withdrawal means that our healthcare system is completely shaken, we are left in a state where we didn't build internal capacities to sustain ourselves,' Mithi added.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘World-first' gonorrhoea vaccine to be rolled out in England
A vaccine for gonorrhoea will be rolled out in England as part of a world-first programme, officials have announced. The move, hailed as a 'landmark moment for sexual health', will aim to tackle rising levels of the sexually transmitted infection (STI). Gonorrhoea cases in England topped 85,000 in 2023, the highest since records began in 1918, with warnings over some strains being resistant to antibiotics. The vaccine is an existing jab, known as 4CMenB, that is currently used against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. It is used in the routine childhood programme and given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year. Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said: 'The launch of a world-first routine vaccination for gonorrhoea is a huge step forward for sexual health and will be crucial in protecting individuals, helping to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria.' Eligible patients will be identified and contacted in the coming weeks, with the jab offered through local authority-commissioned sexual health services from 1 August. At the appointment patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B. Doyle added: 'NHS teams across the country are now working hard to plan the rollout and ensure we hit the ground running, while the routine mpox vaccination programme builds on the vital progress the NHS has made in recent months in reaching as many eligible people as possible.' Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK. Symptoms can include green or yellow discharge, pain when urinating and pain and discomfort in the rectum. For women, symptoms can include lower abdominal pain or bleeding between periods. However, many people do not have symptoms. The jab contains proteins from neisseria meningitidis – the bacteria that causes meningococcal disease – which is closely genetically related with neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhoea. Studies by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) suggest the 4CMenB vaccine has between 32.7% to 42% effectiveness against gonorrhoea, and while vaccination would slash the risk of becoming infected it would not eliminate it completely. However, the JCVI said the vaccination would be beneficial, as previous gonorrhoea infection is thought to offer little protection against future infections. The programme comes amid warnings that cases of gonorrhoea that are resistant to the antibiotic ceftriaxone – usually the first line of treatment – are on the rise in England. This means the bacteria that causes the STI has developed the ability to survive and multiply even when exposed to the antibiotic. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Some cases are also classed as 'extensively drug resistant' – or XDR – meaning the infection did not respond to ceftriaxone or the second line of treatment. In March, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed there were 17 cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea between January 2024 and March 2025. In the same period, there were nine XDR cases reported, compared with five cases between 2022 and 2023. Dr Sema Mandal, consultant epidemiologist and deputy director at UKHSA, said: 'Not only will this rollout provide much needed protection to those that need it most, but it will make the UK the first country in the world to offer this protection and a world leader in protecting people against gonorrhoea.' The health minister Ashley Dalton urged people to take up the vaccine offer 'not only keep each other safe but help tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance'. She added: 'By targeting those most at risk, we can reduce transmission rates from this unpleasant disease that is becoming harder to treat and prevent thousands of cases over the next few years.' Richard Angell, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, described the jab as a 'gamechanger'. 'This alone could cut 40% of new gonorrhoea cases,' he said.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
World's first gonorrhoea vaccination to be rolled out on NHS
The NHS added that 'efforts should be made to ensure that the vaccine is offered to those at similar risk, including but not limited to transgender women and gender-diverse people assigned male at birth'. Dr Amanda Doyle, the national director for primary care at NHS England, said it was 'a huge step forward for sexual health' and would 'reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria'. The vaccine is an existing jab, known as 4CMenB, that is currently used to protect people against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. It is used in the routine childhood programme and given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year. Those eligible will be contacted and able to get the jab through their local sexual health clinic from Aug 1. They will also be offered free jabs for mpox, the human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis A and B, while at the appointment, the NHS said. Symptoms for gonorrhoea include green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, pain when urinating and pain and discomfort in the rectum. For women, it can also cause lower abdominal pain or bleeding between periods. But for many, especially women, the infection can be symptomless and lie undetected for years. 'Game changer' The jab contains proteins from neisseria meningitidis, the bacteria that causes meningococcal disease, which is closely genetically related with neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhoea. The vaccine is between 32.7 to 42 per cent effective against gonorrhoea, according to studies, and will not eliminate the infection altogether. But the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation said it would reduce spread, especially as a previous gonorrhoea infection is thought to offer little protection against future infections. Richard Angell, the chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, described the jab as a 'game changer'. 'This alone could cut 40 per cent of new gonorrhoea cases,' he said. The programme comes amid warnings that cases of gonorrhoea that are resistant to the antibiotic ceftriaxone – usually the first line of treatment – are on the rise in England. This means the bacteria that causes the STI has developed the ability to survive and multiply even when exposed to the antibiotic. Some cases have also been classed as extensively drug resistant (XDR) meaning the infection did not respond to ceftriaxone or the second line of treatment. In March, UKHSA revealed there were 17 cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea between January 2024 and March 2025. In the same period, there were nine XDR cases reported, compared to five cases between 2022 and 2023. Dr Sema Mandal, a consultant epidemiologist and deputy director at UKHSA, said: 'This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea.' She added: 'Not only will this roll-out provide much needed protection to those that need it most, but it will make the UK the first country in the world to offer this protection and a world leader in protecting people against gonorrhoea.'
