Are young men more likely to contract mpox? WHO data shows...

For the second time in two years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox as a global public health emergency.

While declaring it as a global health emergency on August 14, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that mpox was being reported in countries that had no previous history of the disease. However, the epicentre of the disease remains the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

By July 30, a total of 14,250 mpox cases and 456 deaths had been reported from 10 African Union (AU) member-states, according to Africa Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), which further said that this marked a 160 per cent year-on-year increase in cases and 19 per cent increase in deaths.

This is the second such outbreak in two years. Here we see how alike or different the two outbreaks are and whether young men are more prone to mpox.

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Is mpox a disease of young men?

Mpox is a disease caused by the virus of the same name. It belongs to the smallpox family of viruses.

Mpox spreads through close contact with an infected person, which also includes sexual contact but also other intimate contact like hugging or kissing. It can also spread from an infected animal to human through biting or scratching or consuming food contaminated by the infected animal.

In the 2022-23 outbreak, mpox primarily spread through sexual contact and mostly affected adult gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, according to the WHO.

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This is how the disease came to be associated with young men — who were more likely to be sexually involved with men.

In 2022, a leading WHO advisor, Dr. David Heymann, told the Associated Press that the mpox outbreak was amplified by two gay rave parties.

“We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” said Heymann.

What does data say about mpox transmission?

During January 2022-April 2024, the WHO received reports of more than 97,000 mpox cases and 186 mpox-related deaths, according to the WHO’s latest weekly epidemiological report.

Of the infected and diseased, 96.4 per cent were male with average age of 34, according to the WHO report.

The situation in the ongoing outbreak in Africa, however, paints a more nuanced picture.

By July 30, a total of 14,250 mpox cases and 456 deaths were reported in 10 AU member-states, according to Africa CDC.

Of these infections and deaths, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accounted for 96.3 per cent of all cases and 97 per cent of all deaths.

Of the deaths and infections in the DRC, around 75 per cent of the victims have been children up to the age of 10, said Dr Pierre-Olivier Ngadjole to BBC, who works in the mpox-affected area.

In June, an update from the WHO said that up to 33 per cent of all those affected in the DRC were children under 15.