136
submitted 1 month ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.

The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.

Hundreds of people with the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have attended hospital in the mining town of Kamituga, South Kivu province, in what is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger outbreak, doctors say.

The new DRC outbreak is a mutated form of clade I mpox. Doctors report a fatality rate of about 5% in adults and 10% in children, as well as high rates of miscarriages among pregnant women.

all 14 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] AuroraZzz@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

It kinda sucks that global warming causes plagues to spread faster in the warmer, moister air. Makes the bad situation a whole lot worse

[-] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

A bunch of research into Covid and how it propagates in the air has found that higher CO2 concentrations allow viruses to survive longer. This is a part of why we are seeing increased risk of infections.

[-] Forfaden@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I thought CO2 concentration was just an analog for measuring air circulation and how often the air is vented outside and therefore how many viruses would be in the air

But nope you're right! Higher CO2 concentrations keep airborne viruses viable for longer. That's wild Here's the first result when I looked it up: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html

[-] janNatan@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If it comes to the USA, it's too late. The recent outbreak has cemented in the minds of Americans that this is a Gay™ disease, and it only affects those pesky Gays. Therefore, the vaccine will be refused in even higher amounts than other vaccines. "I'm not a Gay. I don't have to worry about it."

[-] sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Honestly, - and 5 years ago I would have been appalled to hear myself say this - that might be the best outcome for us all.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 1 month ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.

Hundreds of people with the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have attended hospital in the mining town of Kamituga, South Kivu province, in what is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger outbreak, doctors say.

Clade I has historically been found in people who eat infected bushmeat, with transmission largely confined to the affected household.

At a briefing for journalists, Trudie Lang, professor of global health research at Oxford University, said that when the DRC outbreak was detected last September scientists had assumed it would be clade II, because of the sexual transmission, until genetic testing revealed it belonged to the more virulent strain.

South Kivu is on the border with Burundi and Rwanda and close to Uganda, and there is frequent cross-border travel by local people.

Lang said it was unclear how many asymptomatic or mild cases there were, with the long incubation time of the virus increasing the risk of transmission before people realised they were sick.


The original article contains 470 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 59%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
136 points (98.6% liked)

World News

38126 readers
2770 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS