Currently confined to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Central Africa, the new strain is different from the Mpox 2b clade that caused a global outbreak in 2022, consisting of 94,707 confirmed cases in 107 countries.
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo has long been witnessing endemic cases of this type. The Mpox clade 1 type, which is deadlier and more prominent, has been around for decades. But now it has become more transmissible due to new variations i.e. clade 1b,” infectious diseases expert Dr Ishwar Gilada told IANS.
"Unlike Clade 1, the new Clade 1b strain, which is estimated to have jumped to humans around September 2023, has a high mortality rate and is not limited to men who have sex with men (MSM)," added Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chairman. of the National Covid-19 Task Force of the Indian Medical Association.
According to scientists at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, Clade 1B has a mortality rate of 5 percent in adults and 10 percent in children.
The new clade can affect men and women without sexual contact; and kids; in addition to causing spontaneous abortions and stillbirths, they noted.
"The new strain of Mpox is worrying precisely because it can be transmitted more easily between people than the previous strain," Gautam Menon, Dean of Research and Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, told IANS.
Meanwhile, the Africa CDC reported an overall mortality rate of 6.7 percent of 4,488 suspected Mpox cases in 2024 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Seventy percent of cases and 88 percent of total deaths occurred among children under 15 years of age. However, it is not known whether all these cases were due to the new clade 1b strain or the original clade 1 strain, Dr Rajeev told IANS. .
“It is difficult to estimate the true mortality rate because not all cases will be reported or counted. Another problem with the clade 1 strain of Mpox is that it can be confused with chickenpox, a common infection. Recent research with doctors has shown difficulty differentiating the two simply by looking at the lesions. Therefore, there could be inaccuracies in the number of cases reported,” Dr. Rajeev explained.
There is still no indication of the spread of this new clade 1b strain in other countries.
But “if global travel carries this new strain to other parts of the world, human-to-human transmission could occur through physical or sexual contact, or both. If that happens, the spread pattern will be different from the 2022 outbreak, where women and children were not significantly affected,” Dr. Rajeev said.
"Until that data is available, there is no obvious risk to India at this time," he added.
However, Dr Ishwar, also General Secretary of the People's Health Organization of India, called for increasing surveillance with whole genome sequencing.
“There should be some kind of guidelines. We currently do not have any cases of Mpox in India, but we need to be vigilant and continue to watch the global scenario,” he said.
Dr Gautam said there are vaccines for Mpox and that, fortunately, the virus “mutates more slowly than the virus that causes Covid-19 and still appears relatively difficult to transmit. "We should be vigilant at this time, but stricter measures are not needed at this time."
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo has long been witnessing endemic cases of this type. The Mpox clade 1 type, which is deadlier and more prominent, has been around for decades. But now it has become more transmissible due to new variations i.e. clade 1b,” infectious diseases expert Dr Ishwar Gilada told IANS.
"Unlike Clade 1, the new Clade 1b strain, which is estimated to have jumped to humans around September 2023, has a high mortality rate and is not limited to men who have sex with men (MSM)," added Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chairman. of the National Covid-19 Task Force of the Indian Medical Association.
According to scientists at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, Clade 1B has a mortality rate of 5 percent in adults and 10 percent in children.
The new clade can affect men and women without sexual contact; and kids; in addition to causing spontaneous abortions and stillbirths, they noted.
"The new strain of Mpox is worrying precisely because it can be transmitted more easily between people than the previous strain," Gautam Menon, Dean of Research and Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, told IANS.
Meanwhile, the Africa CDC reported an overall mortality rate of 6.7 percent of 4,488 suspected Mpox cases in 2024 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Seventy percent of cases and 88 percent of total deaths occurred among children under 15 years of age. However, it is not known whether all these cases were due to the new clade 1b strain or the original clade 1 strain, Dr Rajeev told IANS. .
“It is difficult to estimate the true mortality rate because not all cases will be reported or counted. Another problem with the clade 1 strain of Mpox is that it can be confused with chickenpox, a common infection. Recent research with doctors has shown difficulty differentiating the two simply by looking at the lesions. Therefore, there could be inaccuracies in the number of cases reported,” Dr. Rajeev explained.
There is still no indication of the spread of this new clade 1b strain in other countries.
But “if global travel carries this new strain to other parts of the world, human-to-human transmission could occur through physical or sexual contact, or both. If that happens, the spread pattern will be different from the 2022 outbreak, where women and children were not significantly affected,” Dr. Rajeev said.
"Until that data is available, there is no obvious risk to India at this time," he added.
However, Dr Ishwar, also General Secretary of the People's Health Organization of India, called for increasing surveillance with whole genome sequencing.
“There should be some kind of guidelines. We currently do not have any cases of Mpox in India, but we need to be vigilant and continue to watch the global scenario,” he said.
Dr Gautam said there are vaccines for Mpox and that, fortunately, the virus “mutates more slowly than the virus that causes Covid-19 and still appears relatively difficult to transmit. "We should be vigilant at this time, but stricter measures are not needed at this time."
