Africa’s MPOX Variant Clade 1b Reaches France: Health Officials Take Action

The first case of the MPOX variant spreading in Africa has been reported in France.

On Tuesday, the French Ministry of Health announced that a Brittany resident had been infected with a new MPOX variant, clade 1b.

MPOX is an acute viral infection characterized by fever and rash.

The monkeypox virus, a double-stranded DNA virus, has a distinctive brick-shaped structure and is classified into two clades, each with two subclades.

MPOX was first discovered in 1958 by researchers at the National Serum Institute in Copenhagen, who observed it in laboratory monkeys exhibiting symptoms similar to chickenpox. The first case of human infection was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.

Before the 2022 outbreak, MPOX was an endemic disease primarily occurring in rural tropical rainforest regions in Central and West Africa.

Since the beginning of May of the same year, cases have been continuously reported in non-endemic countries, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare an international public health emergency on July 23, 2022. This declaration was lifted on May 11, 2023.

After Clade 1b was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, the variant has spread across Africa, showing epidemiological transition and expanding its affected areas. The WHO reinstated the international public health emergency on August 14, 2024.

To prepare for the potential introduction of clade 1b MPOX, South Korea has designated 14 African countries as quarantine management areas. Travelers from these regions are subject to fever screening, and individuals are encouraged to self-report any symptoms. The country has implemented separate response protocols for both clade 1 and clade 2 MPOX.

The French Ministry of Health reported that while the infected individual had not traveled directly to Central Africa, they had contact with two people who had recently returned from the region.

The Ministry of Health explained that it is investigating the source of the infection and has implemented measures to prevent its further spread.

Since the beginning of last year, a new variant of MPOX with a high fatality rate and high transmission speed has been spreading in Africa. The WHO declared an international public health emergency (PHEIC) last August.