Three factors could explain the higher case fatality rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An outbreak* of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) has been detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the case fatality rate — the percent of detected cases that are fatal — is 4.6%, or one in 22. That represents 581 deaths among 12,569 suspected cases in the 2023 outbreak. This is high. By comparison, the mpox outbreak of 2022 that was declared a “public health emergency of international concern” by the WHO had a case fatality rate of 0.18%, or one in 500. In the DRC, the case fatality rate of the 2022 outbreak was similar to the global rate, at around 0.2%. (The official international emergency that started in July 2022 ended in May 2023. While technically the current cases are an “escalation” of a longstanding mpox outbreak in the DRC, for the sake of clarity, I’ll use the terminology of the 2022/Clade II and 2023/Clade I outbreaks here.)
Is the New Mpox ‘Outbreak’ Deadlier?
