Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

WHO warns more mpox expected in Europe over the coming days or weeks

Further imported cases of the new, more dangerous mpox strain in Europe are likely, after Sweden announced the first such infection outside Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.

Published: 16 August 2024 06:47 CEST
WHO warns more mpox expected in Europe over the coming days or weeks
Undated file photo of monkeypox (now known as mpox) particles (green) found within an infected cell (pink and purple), cultured in the laboratory. Photo: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/AFP

The case recorded in a traveller in Sweden was announced the day after the World Health Organization declared the mpox surge in Africa a public health emergency of international concern – the highest alarm it can sound.

The UN health agency was concerned by the rise in cases and fatalities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the spread to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Sweden’s Public Health Agency told AFP on Thursday that it had registered a case of the Clade 1b subclade – the same new strain of the virus that has surged in the DRC since September 2023.

“A person who sought care” in Stockholm “has been diagnosed with mpox caused by the clade 1 variant. It is the first case caused by clade I to be diagnosed outside the African continent,” the agency said in a separate statement.

The person was infected during a visit to “the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox Clade 1”, state epidemiologist Magnus Gisslén said in the statement.

The agency added: “The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population, a risk that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently considers very low.”

The WHO’s European regional office in Copenhagen said it was discussing with Sweden how best to manage the newly detected case.

“The confirmation of mpox Clade 1 in Sweden is a clear reflection of the interconnectedness of our world,” it said in a statement.

“There are likely to be further imported cases of Clade 1 in the European region over the coming days and weeks, and it is imperative that we don’t stigmatise travellers or countries/regions.”

“Travel restrictions and border closures don’t work and should be avoided,” it added.

548 deaths in DRC

The outbreak has centred on the DR Congo.

Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said in a video message that the country “has recorded 15,664 potential cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the year”, with all 26 provinces affected.

The DRC’s population is around 100 million.

He said the government had put in place a “national strategic plan for vaccination against mpox”, as well as improving surveillance of the disease at borders and checkpoints.

The minister said government-level working groups have been set up to boost contact tracing and help mobilise resources to “maintain control of this epidemic”.

Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark, in monkeys kept for research.

It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC.

Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

Vaccine drive

The US Department of Health said Wednesday it would be “donating 50,000 doses of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved JYNNEOS vaccine to DRC”.

“Vaccination will be a critical element of the response to this outbreak,” it said in a statement.

And Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic said it was ready to produce up to 10 million doses of its vaccine targeting mpox by 2025.

There are two subtypes of the virus: the more virulent and deadlier Clade 1, endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa; and Clade 2, endemic in West Africa.

In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the Clade 2b subclade.

The WHO declared a public health emergency which lasted from July 2022 to May 2023.

That outbreak, which has now largely subsided, caused some 140 deaths out of around 90,000 cases.

The Clade 1b subclade causes more severe disease than Clade 2b, with a higher fatality rate.

Article by AFP’s Camille Bas-Wohlert with Marthe Bosuandole in Kinshasa

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FOOD AND DRINK

Fruit, chocolate and meals at the table: What French doctors say children should eat

France takes its food seriously, and that includes healthy eating guidelines for children. French kids get high-quality, nutritionally balanced school lunches and now the country's health watchdog has issued guidelines for parents on what to feed their kids.

Published: 11 September 2024 14:00 CEST
Fruit, chocolate and meals at the table: What French doctors say children should eat

The public health agency Santé Publique France has issued a range of healthy eating recommendations for parents of children aged between four and 11.

“Dietary recommendations for children aged 4 to 11 may be subject to a certain lack of awareness or preconceived ideas,” Anne-Juliette Serry, head of the nutrition and physical activity unit at SPF said.

“While parents tend to raise the subject naturally with health professionals in the case of toddlers, this is less the case when children start to grow up.”

Overall, the guidelines are similar to those in place for school lunches. Schools provide a hot three-course meal for all pupils at lunchtime, with government guidelines in place to cover the nutritional content.

But SPF is also concerned about what children eat – and how they eat – at home. So here’s what French authorities say children should be eating;

Five-a-day – but don’t count fruit juice

Children need to get used to eating “fruit and vegetables at meals every day”, SPF said – regardless of whether they are, “fresh, frozen or canned, raw or cooked, plain or prepared”.

But it said that fruit juices, which contain sugars and are low in fibre, “do not count as a daily portion of fruit and vegetables”.

Fruit juice consumption should be limited to half a glass a day for children up to the age of 11, with a maximum of one glass for older children. Squeezed fruit is preferable in all cases.

Snacks

The goûter – the afternoon snack, typically eaten after school – is an institution for French kids (and plenty of adults) and SPF wisely does not try to suggest ditching it.

But SPF – citing the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire, de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (Anses) and the Haut Conseil de la santé publique – recommends limiting the daily intake of viennoiseries such as croissants and pains au chocolat (or chocolatines, per right-thinking people in southwest France).

Instead, it suggests giving children, “bread with a few squares of chocolate or a little butter or jam, fresh fruit or compote or a dairy product”.

READ ALSO Le goûter: The importance of the afternoon snack in France

If you buy in pre-packaged cookies or snacks, avoid ones with a Nutri-Score E.

Three dairy products a day

Children and adolescents should consume up to three dairy products a day, SPF said, for their calcium intake, compared with two for adults. Milk, yoghurt and cheese are all recommended.

READ ALSO Cheese in numbers: France’s obsession with fromage

But children under five years of age should not consume raw milk, or cheeses made from raw milk (except Emmental or Comté), due to the risk of infection, the agency warned.

Watch your portion sizes

Portion sizes should be adapted to those of adults. It’s recommended that children between the ages of four and six have portions that are half that of an adult, with quantities increasing progressively until children are eating adult portions from the age of 11.

READ ALSO Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

Table manners

The agency doesn’t just concern itself with what children eat, but how they eat, saying that childhood is “the time when benchmarks and habits are set that will stay with us into adulthood”. 

It “encourages parent/child interaction as much as possible, by eating together at the table and avoiding screens at mealtimes.” 

Where possible, it recommends cooking together.

The aim of the campaign is to “facilitate the adoption of good practices in everyday household life, and ultimately reduce the incidence of illnesses and medical conditions that can be induced by inappropriate eating habits”.

SHOW COMMENTS