A state of emergency was declared in Sierra Leone on Monday after the country reported its second case of mpox in less than four days, health authorities said.
Neither case had known recent contact with infected animals or other sick individuals, reports AP.
Only the first case involved recent travel, limited to the airport town of Lungi in the northern Port Loko District between 26 December and 6 January. Both patients are receiving treatment at a hospital in the capital, Freetown.
The Congo has borne the brunt of the epidemic, with most of the roughly 43 000 suspected cases and 1 000 deaths in Africa this past year.
Sierra Leone was previously the epicentre of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the deadliest in history. The outbreak, primarily concentrated in West Africa, affected Sierra Leone the most, with nearly 4 000 deaths out of the more than 11 000 recorded globally.
The country also lost 7% of its healthcare workforce to the outbreak.
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