Only 16% of 670 patients seen at Kamituga hospital in South Kivu were under the age of 15 years.
The test the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses to identify clade I mpox cases is 'most likely not reliable' for detection of the substrain identified in the study, the authors say.
Another mpox study today showed that dose-sparing vaccine administration of the Jynneos vaccine appeared to have worked.
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Fighting has upended lab testing and sent mpox patients fleeing from treatment centers back into the community.
Among confirmed cases in the DRC, children 15 years and younger account for 49% of cases.
Though the current African outbreak also features sexual transmission, household transmission is also taking place at a high rate.
In the region's other developments, Sierra Leone reported more cases, with the first two linked to the clade 2 global strain.
The UK mpox patient had recently returned from Uganda, where clade 1b is spreading in the community.
In DRC hot spots, vaccination will target the greater community, not just contacts. A trial of the antiviral drug brincidofovir also launched in the country.
The ECDC says there have been 11 cases in Europe since August 2024, all mild.
The index patient had been in the DR Congo, and related infections were reported in 4 contacts.
The patient hadn't traveled to Central Africa but was a contact of two people who did.
Pakistan and Oman reported recent imported clade 1 mpox cases, both linked to UAE travel.