A man infected with Mpox lies on a bed inside a ward at the Kamenge University Hospital's Mpox treatment center in Bujumbura on August 22, 2024. Photo by Tchandrou NITANGA / AFP
Geneva: Youngsters have been especially impacted by mpox outbreaks raging in Africa, with children under five accounting for nearly a third of cases in Burundi, the UN children's agency said Friday.
Burundi is the second hardest-hit country on the continent after the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Children in Burundi are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak, with alarming rates of infection and severe health impacts," said Paul Ngwakum, UNICEF's Regional Health Advisor for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Ngwakum said two-thirds of cases in Burundi concerned people aged 19 and under.
"Of particular concern is the rise of mpox among children under five years of age, representing 30 percent of the reported cases," he told reporters in Geneva, speaking via videolink from Bujumbura.
Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can in some cases be deadly.
The World Health Organization declared an international emergency last month, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries.
A total of 25,093 suspected mpox cases and 723 deaths were reported across the continent between January and September 8, WHO said.
Of those, 21,835 suspected cases and 717 deaths were reported in the DRC, while 1,489 suspected cases and no deaths have been reported in neighbouring Burundi.
Ngwakum said many children in this region were already weakened by low immunity and underlying illnesses and "will need critical treatment to be able to avoid them from dying".
