Following the confirmation of the first cases in the nation last month, Burundi’s health minister announced on Thursday that 171 instances of mpox had been confirmed.
Previously referred to as monkeypox, mpox is an infectious disease brought on by a virus that can be transferred from person to person by intimate physical contact or from sick animals to people.
“We already had a cumulative of 171 confirmed positive cases, 137 of which are still active,” Health Minister Polycarpe Ndayikeza told AFP.
“So far there have been no deaths from mpox in Burundi,” he added.
Three cases of mpox were detected in Burundi in late July, with the health ministry reporting 153 confirmed cases on August 18.
“The epidemic continues to gain ground,” the ministry said last month, adding it was in the process of creating isolation wards in district hospitals to care for mpox patients.
The detected cases seem to be the “new variant” that is spreading into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, an official told AFP.
Although mpox has been recognized for many years, the recent increase in cases has been caused by a new, more lethal strain called Clade 1b.
According to the World Health Organization, which has declared an international health emergency due to the most recent outbreak, Clade 1b causes death in approximately 3.6 percent of cases, with children being particularly at risk.
In addition to the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, outbreaks have also been found in Asia and Europe, and the number of cases in the region is rapidly increasing.
