Victoria records 120 mpox cases since April Amid global health alert

An alert has been issued by the Victorian department of health after a dramatic spike in cases of mpox in the state over the past few months.

Transcript

00:00Well, we've seen a pretty steep rise in cases here in Victoria, about 100 more since June,

00:07bringing the total outbreak to 120 cases.

00:11Now, we have seen the World Health Organization declare a global health emergency when it

00:18comes to MPOCs, and that's due to an outbreak that's coming out of Central Africa.

00:24Now, there are two types of MPOCs.

00:27There's clade 1 and clade 2.

00:29The type we're seeing in that region is clade 1.

00:33This is a form of the disease that is more associated with poor outcomes, death, severe

00:39illness.

00:40That's not the type we're seeing here in Australia, at least for now.

00:43The type we're seeing here is the type we saw back when we had an outbreak in 2022.

00:49That's clade 2.

00:51This one is less associated with severe illness.

00:54Now, nonetheless, it is important that people are aware of symptoms.

01:00Some people, well, most people rather, do recover quite quickly from the illness, but

01:04some people can be hospitalized and become quite unwell.

01:07So the symptoms are a sore throat, a fever, chills, and a distinct rash.

01:14And authorities are telling anyone who is experiencing those symptoms to go and get

01:19checked out.

01:20It is a communicable disease.

01:22The other thing they're telling people to do is to get vaccinated, especially if they're

01:26in a vulnerable group of people.

01:29That's people who they say are men who have sex with other men, gay men, bisexual men.

01:34This is the group who they're really concentrating on with their vaccination campaign.

01:38And if you are considered a vulnerable person, vaccinations are free.

01:42So this is definitely something that state authorities here are working to get on top

01:47of and indeed health authorities all over the world.

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