The patient’s condition was reported by Morocco’s Health Ministry as stable © JUN LI / Getty Images
Morocco has reported its first confirmed case of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, in the city of Marrakesh, a local news agency reported on Friday, citing the Health Ministry. The case involves a man who is currently receiving treatment and is in stable condition, though the authorities have not yet disclosed which clade of the virus he carries.
It follows a recent surge in cases across multiple African nations, which led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare mpox a public health emergency of international concern, similar to how it approached Covid-19 in 2020.
The Moroccan authorities are tracing and monitoring individuals who had contact with the infected man, and none have shown symptoms so far.
Mpox was first identified in 1958 among laboratory monkeys in Denmark, with human cases recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The disease sp
The WHO has identified two distinct clades of the mpox virus – clade I, with subclades Ia and Ib, and clade II, with subclades IIa and IIb. The global outbreak of clade IIb, which began in 2022, continues to sp
On August 31, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Gavi vaccine alliance, Africa CDC, the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO, and other partners, launched an emergency tender to secure mpox vaccines, aiming for agreements that could provide up to 12 million doses through 2025. (RT)
