Twenty-one cases of mpox have been recorded in Congo-Brazzaville, the country’s health minister told state television Sunday.
Gilbert Mokoki said that the central African country had “registered 158 suspect cases” since the beginning of the year, “21 of which we have confirmed”.
Cases of the infectious disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have been surging in eastern and central Africa. Still, the virus has also been detected in Asia and Europe, and the World Health Organisation has declared an international emergency.
The virus has been reported in five of Congo-Brazzaville’s 15 regions, with the forested areas of Sangha and Likouala in the north particularly affected. A new variant of mpox has swept across neighbouring DR Congo, killing more than 570 people so far this year.
Mokoki said the epidemic was not alarming in Congo-Brazzaville but appealed to people to take preventative measures, such as regularly washing their hands.
While the pox has been known for decades, a new, deadlier, and more transmissible strain—Clade 1b—has driven the recent surge in cases.