Ivory Coast health authorities reported 28 cases of Mpox on Tuesday, with one person dying from the virus that has claimed hundreds of lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The total number of reported cases has increased from six on August 1.

The National Institute of Public Hygiene (INHP) recorded “28 confirmed cases nationwide, including one death” as of Tuesday, said INHP ​​doctor Daouda Coulibaly.

The fatal case and several others were recorded in the country’s economic capital, Abidjan, the INHP ​​said. Coulibaly said tests were being carried out to identify the strain of the recent Mpox cases.

“The situation is no cause for concern,” said Coulibaly. “We are only witnessing the beginning of an epidemic – there is no increase in cases.”

He said surveillance of Mpox had been increased.

“We need to break the chains of transmission, identify the contacts of the cases, isolate them and monitor them.”

The cases identified in the West African country this year were the subtype known as Clade 2, which spread during an earlier epidemic in 2022.

A more contagious and deadly subtype called clade 1b has emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 500 people have died from some form of MPOX this year.

The WHO declared the crisis a global health emergency last week.

© 2024 AFP