About the MBOTE Project
The first human case of mpox was identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1970. Since then, the number of mpox cases has steadily increased, and the country has become the epicenter of mpox.
In response to this growing threat, the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in the DRC and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Belgium launched a joint research initiative in 2020 to better document and understand mpox transmission in the DRC. The project was named MBOTE—short for Mpox, Biology, Outcome, Transmission, and Epidemiology, with mbote meaning "hello" in Lingala, one of the local languages of the DRC.
The consortium’s first initiative, MBOTE-Maniema, focused on a particularly large mpox outbreak in the Tunda Health Zone, in southern Maniema Province. In just six months of 2021, over 500 cases were reported, with a case fatality rate of 10%. Partnering with ALIMA, the consortium intensified surveillance, provided clinical support, and combined humanitarian response with scientific investigation—studying clinical presentation, risk factors, and transmission dynamics of mpox in the region.
In 2024, the MBOTE team responded to an unusual outbreak in the mining town of Kamituga in eastern DRC. This outbreak was atypical: it occurred in a more urbanized, non-endemic setting and predominantly affected sex workers and their clients. The investigation led to the identification and description of a new variant—Clade Ib. The variant spread rapidly through the region, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Supported by an EDCTP-3 grant and new partners, the consortium stayed on in Kamituga, establishing a diagnostic lab and treatment center, and initiating studies on Clade Ib’s clinical features, including pregnancy complications.
In 2025, MBOTE researchers detected another new variant—Clade Ia—circulating in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. In response, the consortium launched multiple epidemiological studies, including a vaccination study and a dedicated research initiative among people living with HIV.