According to UNICEF, children are particularly at risk of contracting the Mpox variant.

UNICEF believes that children are particularly vulnerable to the new strain of smallpox. That is why the needs of children should be given special priority in the fight against the infection, said Etleva Kadilli, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.

She described the situation in Burundi as particularly worrying, with the latest information from the African health authority CDC Africa indicating that the number of cases has almost doubled in a week. According to Kadili, 60 percent of the cases are in children and adolescents, and a fifth of the cases are in children under the age of five. In addition, measles has broken out in several parts of the country in Burundi, and many children are suffering from malnutrition.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the focus of the smallpox outbreak remains in Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where nearly 17,800 cases have been reported since the beginning of the year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared its highest level of alert due to the outbreak of smallpox in Africa and the new, potentially more dangerous type – called clade Ib. Preparations are underway for 50,000 doses of vaccine to arrive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.