On Monday local time, the Pakistani Ministry of Health confirmed that the monkeypox cases confirmed last week in the country were mild symptoms of the II branch variant, and no more contagious and deadly Ib variant has been found so far, which has relieved the country's health officials.
Recently, a more contagious and lethal variant of monkeypox Ib has attracted global attention because it is more easily transmitted through close contact and can be easily transmitted to children.
Last week, the Swedish Public Health Agency announced that they have confirmed the first confirmed case of type Ib monkeypox infection, which is the first confirmed case of type Ib infection outside of the African continent and also indicates that the monkeypox epidemic has begun to spread to other continents.
Earlier on Monday, a new case of monkeypox virus infection was discovered in the Philippines, marking the country's first case of monkeypox since December last year. However, the strain of infection in this case is currently unclear.
Sajid Hussain Shah, spokesperson for Pakistan's National Health Service, said on Monday, "So far, there have been no confirmed cases of Branch I in Pakistan
But at the same time, the new strain is rapidly spreading in Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Republic of Burundi has reported more than 100 cases of type Ib monkeypox infection.
The World Health Organization released a report by its Emergency Committee on Monday assessing the monkeypox outbreak in Africa, which stated that since July, this variant has been found in multiple regions of Africa, with 28% of infected individuals being children under the age of 5.
The epidemic in Burundi has raised concerns about the widespread spread of the Ib variant. In addition, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have reported relevant cases, but they have not spread as widely as in Congo.
Cameroon, C ô te d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, and South Africa are mainly II branch strains, which currently appear to cause limited damage.
Although the Ib variant was first discovered in 2024, it is estimated to have appeared around September 2023. In Congo, the epidemic related to the Ib branch mainly affects adults and is rapidly spreading, mainly continuing to spread through sexual contact.
In addition, the World Health Organization has pointed out that the Ia variant may be more concerning, as it mainly affects children. Existing data shows that the mortality rate of the Ia variant is close to 3.6%, and it may continue to spread through multiple modes of transmission. In contrast, the mortality rate of the Ib variant is close to 3%.
The World Health Organization stated that although data continues to emerge, there is currently not enough information to fully describe the severity of the Ib variant, and the recorded number of deaths is relatively small, making age stratification analysis impossible.
In the risk assessment of the African epidemic, Congo and its neighboring countries are classified as high-risk, Nigeria and countries in West, Central and East Africa where the epidemic is prevalent are classified as moderate risk, and other countries in the world are classified as low-risk.