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On August 14, 2024, the World Health Organization declared Mpox, previously known as Monkeypox, a global health emergency due to a surge in cases across Africa. The announcement came after a meeting of the UN health agency`s emergency committee.  Originally identified over 50 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mpox virus has been endemic in the region for decades. Recently, a new variant of the clade 1 strain, known as clade 1b, has emerged and is spreading in eastern Congo and neighboring countries that previously had no cases. Swedish authorities reported a case of the clade 1 variant on Thursday, 15th August, marking the first detection of this strain outside Africa. Despite this, they have assessed the public risk as low. Now let us understand what Mpox virus is, the symptoms and how they spread. Watch video

Talking about the new JN.1 COVID strain, former AIIMS Director and Senior Pulmonologist Dr. Randeep Guleria on December 23, asserted that the new variant was more transmissible and was gradually becoming the dominant variant. At the same time, he added, that it wasn’t severe infection and hospitalization.  " It is more transmissible, it is spreading more rapidly, it is gradually becoming a dominant variant....it is causing more infections but the data also suggests that it is not causing severe infections and hospitalization. Most of the symptoms are predominantly of the upper airways like fever, cough, cold, sore throat, running nose, and body aches," said Randeep Guleria.  Speaking to ANI, chairman of INSAGCOG, Dr NK Arora said, " Within India...from October last week and then till now in last 8 weeks, we have seen 22 cases...there is no evidence that it is spreading very rapidly...Jn.1 is less than 1% of all the isolates so far. Symptoms are very similar, based on symptoms, Jn.1 cannot be differentiated from other variants...there is no increase in hospitalization...there is no need to panic but we need to be vigilant."