First known case of new strain of mpox confirmed in United States

Washington, SANA- The US’ first known case of clade 1b mpox was identified in California, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

CNN quoted the centers as saying in a statement: “The infected person was a person who recently came to the United States from East Africa, where he received treatment upon his arrival in the country at a local medical facility before being allowed to leave.

The subtype that’s responsible for most of the ongoing spread, clade Ib, is relatively new.Travel-related cases of mpox clade Ib have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom, noting that the initial symptoms are similar to those of influenza, including fever, chills, fatigue, headache and muscle weakness, often followed by a painful or itchy rash with raised lesions that crust and disappear over weeks.

Data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October showed that monkeypox cases are still spread across the continent and have increased by more than 500 percent from last year, recording more than 48,000 cases of monkeypox, including 1,048 deaths since the beginning of this year.

Last August, the World Health Organization declared a global “public health emergency” over monkeypox, the highest level of warning the organization can issue.

Fedaa al-Rahai