LONDON/CHICAGO: Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of Democratic Republic of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it.
That means there are multiple unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, complicating the response, half a dozen scientists in Africa, Europe and the United States told Reuters.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a public health problem in parts of Africa since 1970, but received little global attention until it surged internationally in 2022, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency. That declaration ended 10 months later.
A new strain of the virus, known as clade Ib, has the world’s attention again after the WHO declared a new health emergency.
The strain is a mutated version of clade I, a form of mpox spread by contact with infected animals that has been endemic in Congo for decades. Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can kill.
Congo has had more than 18,000 suspected clade I and clade Ib mpox cases and 615 deaths this year, according to the WHO. There have also been 222 confirmed clade Ib cases in four African countries in the last month, plus a case each in Sweden and Thailand in people with a travel history in Africa.
“I worry that in Africa, we are working blindly,” said Dr. Dimie Ogoina, an infectious diseases expert at Niger Delta University Hospital in Nigeria who chairs the WHO’s mpox emergency committee. He first raised the alarm about potential sexual transmission of mpox in 2017, now an accepted route of spread for the virus.
“We don’t understand our outbreak very well, and if we don’t understand our outbreak very well we will have difficulty addressing the problem in terms of transmission dynamics, the severity of the disease, risk factors of the disease,” Ogoina said. “And I worry about the fact that the virus seems to be mutating and producing new strains.”
He said it took clade IIb in Nigeria five years or more to evolve enough for sustained spread among humans, sparking the 2022 global outbreak. Clade Ib has done the same thing in less than a year.
Mutating ‘more rapidly’
Mpox is an orthopoxvirus, the same family that causes smallpox. Population-wide protection from a global vaccine campaign 50 years ago has waned, as the vaccinating stopped when the disease was eradicated.
Genetic sequencing of clade Ib infections, which the WHO estimates emerged mid-September 2023, show they carry a mutation known as APOBEC3, a signature of adaptation in humans.
The virus that causes mpox has typically been fairly stable and slow to mutate, but APOBEC-driven mutations can accelerate viral evolution, said Dr. Miguel Paredes, who is studying the evolution of mpox and other viruses at Fred Hutchison Cancer Center in Seattle.
“All the human-to-human cases of mpox have this APOBEC signature of mutations, which means that it’s mutating a little bit more rapidly than we would expect,” he said.
Paredes and other scientists said a response was complicated by several mpox outbreaks happening at once.
In the past, mpox was predominantly acquired through human contact with infected animals. That is still driving a rise in Congo in clade I cases – also known as clade Ia — likely due in part to deforestation and increased consumption of bushmeat, scientists said.
The mutated versions, clade Ib and IIb, can now essentially be considered a sexually transmitted disease, said Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, a South African epidemiologist and chair of the Africa CDC’s mpox advisory committee. Most of the mutated clade Ib cases are among adults, driven at first by an epidemic among female sex workers in South Kivu, Congo.
The virus also can spread through close contact with an infected person, which is likely how clusters of children have been infected with clade Ib, particularly in Burundi and in eastern Congo’s displacement camps, where crowded living conditions may be contributing.
Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems may be at greater risk of serious mpox disease and death, according to the WHO.
Clade I has typically caused more severe disease, with fatality rates of 4 percent-11 percent, compared to around 1 percent for clade II. Ogoina said data from Congo suggests few have died of the new Ib version, but he feared some data is being mixed up.
More research is urgently needed, but three teams tracking mpox outbreaks in Africa say they cannot even access chemicals needed for diagnostic tests.
Planning a response, including vaccination strategies, without this is difficult, the scientists said.
Karim said around half of cases in eastern Congo, where Ib is particularly prevalent, are only being diagnosed by doctors, with no laboratory confirmation.
Getting samples to labs is difficult because the health care system is already under pressure, he said. And around 750,000 people have been displaced amid fighting between the M23 rebel group and the government.
Many African laboratories cannot get the supplies they need, said Dr. Emmanuel Nakoune, an mpox expert at the Institut Pasteur in Bangui, Central African Republic, which also has clade Ia cases.
“This is not a luxury,” he said, but necessary to track deadly outbreaks.
New mpox strain is changing fast; African scientists are ‘working blindly’ to respond
https://arab.news/j4jvt
New mpox strain is changing fast; African scientists are ‘working blindly’ to respond
- Scientists say many questions remain about new clade Ib strain
- Sexual transmission driving spread, but children infected, too
French authorities investigate if Jewish passengers were removed from flight due to religion
Barrot, contacted the CEO of Vueling, Carolina Martinoli, to express his deep concern
PARIS: French authorities are trying to establish whether a group of young French citizens were removed from a plane bound for Paris from Spain this week because they are Jewish.
The airline, Vueling, has denied the claims.
Several dozen French passengers on Wednesday were kicked off a flight leaving the Spanish city of Valencia for Paris, for what Spanish police and the airline described as unruly behavior.
France’s ministry for Europe and foreign affairs said in a statement on Saturday that the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, contacted the CEO of Vueling, Carolina Martinoli, to express his deep concern “about the removal of a group of young French Jews from one of the company’s flights.”
Barrot also requested more information to “determine whether these individuals had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion.”
A similar request has been made to the Spanish ambassador to France.
“Ms. Martinoli assured Mr. Barrot that a thorough internal investigation was underway and that its findings would be shared with the French and Spanish authorities,” the ministry said.
Vueling previously denied reports that the incident, which involved the removal of 44 minors and eight adults from flight V8166, was related to the passengers’ religion.
Some Israeli news outlets reported that the students were Jewish and that their removal was religiously motivated, a claim that was repeated by an Israeli minister online. Spain’s Civil Guard said the minors and adults were French nationals. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.
A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the captain of the plane ordered the removal of the minors from the plane at Valencia’s Manizes Airport after they repeatedly ignored the crew’s instructions.
On Thursday, the Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain expressed concern about the incident. The group said that Vueling needed to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane.
Indian firm says it shipped non-military explosives to Russia
- One of the Russian companies listed in Indian customs data as receiving the compound is the explosives manufacturer Promsintez
- Ideal Detonators said the material it shipped was not military grade
NEW DELHI: An Indian firm that shipped $1.4 million worth of an explosive compound with military uses to Russia in December said on Saturday it complies with Indian rules and the substance it had shipped was for civilian industrial purposes.
Reuters reported on July 24 that Ideal Detonators Private Limited shipped the compound, known as HMX or octogen, to two Russian explosives manufacturers despite US threats to impose sanctions on any entity supporting Russia’s Ukraine war effort.
One of the Russian companies listed in Indian customs data as receiving the compound is the explosives manufacturer Promsintez. An official at Ukraine’s SBU security service has said the Russian company has ties to the military and that Ukraine launched a drone attack in April against a Promsintez-owned factory.
Promsintez did not respond to a request for comment.
Ideal Detonators said in an emailed response to Reuters that the material it shipped was not military grade. “The shipment ... is for industrial activity and it’s a civil explosive,” the company said.
The US government has identified HMX as “critical for Russia’s war effort” and has warned financial institutions against facilitating any sales of the substance to Moscow.
The US Treasury Department has the authority to sanction those who sell HMX and similar substances to Russia, sanctions lawyers have said.
HMX is widely used in missile and torpedo warheads, rocket motors, exploding projectiles and plastic-bonded explosives for advanced military systems, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Technical Information Center and related defense research programs. The compound also has some limited civilian applications in mining and other industrial activities.
Senegal bans motorbikes near Mali border over militant fears
- A decree published this week said the prohibition was for “security reasons“
- The midnight-to-dawn motorbike ban applies to the Bakel region in Senegal
DAKAR: Senegal officials have imposed a nighttime ban on motorcycles in an eastern region after militants used motorbikes in recent attacks in towns just over the border in Mali.
A decree published this week said the prohibition was for “security reasons,” after attackers targeted army positions in several Malian towns on July 1, killing at least one civilian.
One of the Malian towns, Diboli, is less than 500 meters from Kidira in Senegal.
The midnight-to-dawn motorbike ban applies to the Bakel region in Senegal, which stretches around 230 kilometers (140 miles) along the border with Mali.
The July 1 attacks in Mali were claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic initials JNIM, an Islamist outfit affiliated with Al-Qaeda that is active in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
JNIM has risen to become the most influential militant threat in the Sahel, according to the United Nations. Analysts say it has ambitions to expand from Mali into both Senegal and Mauritania.
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, the local administration of the Bakel region declined to comment on the motorbike ban.
Mali, ruled by a junta following two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, has been gripped by insecurity and violence from Al-Qaeda- and Daesh-linked groups for over a decade.
Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques
- “The past two years have been extremely difficult for American Muslims,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell
- The recent vandalism reports have left some worried and frustrated — but not entirely surprised
TEXAS: After a spate of vandalism reports involving graffiti at a few mosques in Texas and California, Muslim leaders there have stepped up existing efforts to keep their sacred spaces and community members safe.
The incidents and subsequent hypervigilance add to what many American Muslims say has already been a charged climate amid the fallout in the US from the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza. The war started in October 2023 with a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel.
“The past two years have been extremely difficult for American Muslims,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
A constant stream of images showing the death, destruction and ongoing starvation in Gaza has taken a toll, said Mitchell, as has a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry in the US
He pointed to one of the most egregious examples of that bigotry: After the war started, an Illinois man killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American Muslim boy and wounded his mother in a hate-crime attack.
Worry and frustration
The recent vandalism reports have left some worried and frustrated — but not entirely surprised.
“Since October 2023, we’ve definitely seen rise in Islamophobia,” said Rawand Abdelghani, who is on the board of directors of Nueces Mosque, one of the affected mosques in Austin, Texas. “Anti-Palestinian, anti-immigrant, all of that rhetoric that’s being said … it has contributed to things like this happening.”
Nueces security footage showed someone, their face partially covered, spray-painting what appears to be Star of David symbols at the property. CAIR Austin said similar incidents were reported at two other Austin mosques.
They all seemingly happened on the same night in May, in what the group described as part of “a disturbing pattern of hate-motivated incidents.” It called for increased security patrols and protective measures.
Shaimaa Zayan, CAIR Austin operations manager, called them an intimidation attempt.
Less than two weeks earlier, someone had spray-painted graffiti at the Islamic Center of Southern California, including the Star of David on an outer wall there, center spokesperson Omar Ricci said.
“In light of what’s going on within Palestine and the genocide in Gaza, it felt like an attack,” said Ricci, who’s also a reserve Los Angeles Police Department officer.
Some specifics remained unresolved. The LAPD said it opened a vandalism/hate crime investigation and added extra patrols, but added it has neither a suspect nor a motive and noted that nonreligious spaces were also targeted.
The Austin Police Department did not respond to Associated Press inquiries.
Nueces had already increased its security camera use following three incidents last year, including someone throwing rocks at the mosque, Abdelghani said. After the May vandalism, it also added overnight security, she added.
Nueces serves many university students and is considered a “home away from home,” Abdelghani said. It’s where they learn about their faith, meet other Muslims and find refuge, including during tense times, like when some students got arrested amid campus protests last year, she added.
CAIR says that in 2024, its offices nationwide received 8,658 complaints, the highest number it has recorded since its first civil rights report in 1996. It listed employment discrimination as the most common in 2024.
The group says last year, US Muslims, along with others of different backgrounds, “were targeted due to their anti-genocide … viewpoints.” Referencing former President Joe Biden, the CAIR report said that for “the second year in a row, the Biden-backed Gaza genocide drove a wave of Islamophobia in the United States.”
Israel has strongly rejected allegations it’s committing genocide in Gaza, where its war with Hamas has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The initial Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, while about 250 were abducted.
Tensions in multiple spaces
The war has fueled tensions in myriad US settings. After it started, Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups reported a surge of harassment, bias and physical assaults reports against their community members. Pew Research Center in February 2024 found that 70 percent of US Muslims and nearly 90 percent of US Jews surveyed say they felt an increase in discrimination against their respective communities since the war began.
More recently, leaders of US Jewish institutions have called for more help with security after a firebomb attack in Colorado on demonstrators showing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza that left one person killed and others injured, as well as a fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.
Politically, the conflict loomed over last year’s presidential election, leaving many pro-Palestinian US voters feeling ignored by their own government’s support for Israel. It has roiled campuses and sparked debates over free speech and where political rhetoric crosses into harassment and discrimination.
There’ve been bitter disagreements, including among some Jewish Americans, about exactly what the definition of antisemitism should cover, and whether certain criticism of Israeli policies and Zionism should be included. That debate further intensified as President Donald Trump’s administration sought to deport some foreign-born pro-Palestinian campus activists.
The Islamic Center of Southern California has been targeted before, including vandalism in 2023 and separate threats that authorities said in 2016 were made by a man who was found with multiple weapons in his home.
Incidents like the latest one cause concern, Ricci said.
“People see that it’s not going to take very much to spark something in the city,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotion. There’s a lot of passion” on both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sides.
Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said “if people think they can get away with graffiti, then the next step is to firebomb a mosque or even go attack worshippers.”
Opening doors and receiving support
Al-Marayati and others praised how many have shown support for the affected Muslim communities.
“The best preparation is what we did in Los Angeles and that’s to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and be there for one another,” he said.
In Texas, a gathering at Nueces brought together neighbors and others, including Christians and Jews, to paint over the vandalism, clean up the property and garden, Zayan said.
“It was beautiful,” she said.
“It’s really important to open your doors and open your heart and invite people and to rebuild this trust and connection,” she said. “For non-Muslims, it was a great opportunity for them to show their love and support. They really wanted to do something.”
New Delhi’s high-tech suburb drowns in trash as sanitation workers flee
- Local residents took to social media to show extent of garbage problem in Gurugram
- Photos and videos show garbage piling up in residential areas, sideroads covered in junk
NEW DELHI: One of India’s most modern, high-tech, and upscale urban centers, Gurugram, is sinking in municipal waste that has not been collected for months, residents say, as sanitation workers have fled fearing a police crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Formerly known as Gurgaon, the city of skyscrapers and luxury apartments is located about 30 km south of New Delhi and was transformed over the last two decades from farming fields into a major hub for technology and outsourcing companies.
While its poor waste management system has made local headlines over the years, the problem worsened recently with garbage piling up in residential areas, sideroads covered in junk and trash burning becoming increasingly commonplace, prompting mass complaints from residents who posted visuals across social media platforms.
“There is a serious crisis in Gurgaon on waste management. Wastes are lying everywhere and the administration does not have a clue how to handle that. This is the crisis created by the administration and its policies,” Saurabh Bardhan, owner of Gurugram-based waste management company Green Bandhu, told Arab News.
Indian authorities have detained hundreds of alleged illegal immigrants in recent months, with a Human Rights Watch report published on Wednesday saying that at least 1,500 ethnic Bengali Muslims were expelled to Bangladesh “without due process” between May and June, as expulsions continue.
As many of them are employed as informal garbage collectors in Gurugram, the crackdown has affected waste management in the city.
“The migrant workers have been collecting waste for years in this so-called millennium city and they have never bothered to regularize their jobs. These workers were carrying the load of managing the city waste to a great extent,” Bardhan said.
“I heard they are being detained and this has created panic among them. But if we think that only these migrant workers are affected we are wrong. It is the whole society that is suffering because of the government’s hasty and unmindful act.”
S.S. Rohilla, public relations officer at the Municipal Corp. of Gurugram, told Arab News on Saturday that the local government is “trying to resolve the problem,” adding that the situation was “not as bad” as reported by media outlets.
But for Kalyan Singh, the waste problem in his residential area in Gurugram was a crisis.
“For the last two to three days we have been facing an acute crisis of waste lying everywhere in my (area). Never before have we faced something like this,” Singh told Arab News.
“This problem has cropped up, we learnt, after the migrant Bengali-speaking laborers have left en masse after the government’s drive to detain suspected Bangladeshis and foreigners. I hope the situation is addressed soon.”
Meanwhile, other Gurugram residents took to social media to raise concerns over public health risks and express their frustrations with the government.
“Bad roads. Poor waste management. No drainage system. Yet what does the Gurugram gov’t. choose to act on? Not infrastructure. Not public welfare. (But) targeting the people who keep this city running — the migrant workers who clean our homes and city,” Aanchal Jauhari wrote on X.
“Health Danger! Sector 70 (of) Gurugram drowning in garbage. Breeding ground for diseases,” another X user, Gautam Dhar, said. “Please help. Citizen’s health (is) at severe risk.”
