Deadlier and more transmissible than previous forms, the mpox strain surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo ,DRC, since September, known as the Clade Ib subclade, is spread person-to-person.
The World Health Organization ,WHO, said it was considering convening an expert committee to advise on whether to declare an international emergency, as it did during the global mpox outbreak in 2022.
The Clade Ib strain causes skin rashes across the whole body, unlike other strains where lesions and rashes are usually limited to the mouth, face and genitals.
The African Union health agency, Africa CDC, registered 14,479 confirmed and suspected cases of the strain and 455 deaths in DRC as of August 3, representing a mortality rate of around three per cent.
But researchers in the vast Central African nation say the mortality rate from the strain can be as much as 10 per cent among children.
The Congolese government acknowledged last month an exponential increase in cases.
In West Africa, Ivory Coast recently reported six confirmed non-fatal cases, five of which were in the economic capital Abidjan, without specifying the strain.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the DRC, then called Zaire.
It has since been mainly limited to certain West and Central African nations. Humans mainly catch it from infected animals, such as when eating bushmeat.