“Together with our partners, we have developed a Global Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response against monkeypox, which we shared with all member states on Friday 23 August and which was published on Monday,” Tedros said in the capital of the Republic of Congo, Brazzaville.
“The plan requires US$ 135 million over the next six months to control these outbreaks “through comprehensive surveillance and response,” he stressed at the opening of the 74th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, which runs until 30 August and is attended by health ministers from 47 African countries.
That plan, he said, seeks to minimize zoonotic transmission, train communities to participate actively in the prevention and control of outbreaks and promote research and equitable access to medical countermeasures, including vaccines.
Read more: WHO Europe chief says failure to eradicate monkeypox was due to lack of commitment and resources
“This is a complex and dynamic landscape, and responding to and controlling each of these outbreaks will require a complex, comprehensive and coordinated international response“That is why I decided to declare a public health emergency of international concern” on August 14, Tedros explained.
The director general said he was “confident” that with the leadership of the affected countries and the support of the WHO and other agencies, “this outbreak can be brought under rapid control.”
Almost 21,500 cases of monkeypox and 591 deaths The disease has been reported in 13 African countries since January 1, 2024, the African Union (AU) health agency reported.
During this period, 2019 have been detected. 21,466 cases (3,350 confirmed and 18,116 suspected) in Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, said the director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya.
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In a letter to health ministers across the African continent, Kaseya noted that “591 monkeypox deaths have been reported” since the beginning of 2024with a fatality rate of 2.9%.
Africa CDC declared monkeypox a “continental public health emergency” on August 13.
A day later, the WHO declared a state of International health alert for monkeypoxan infectious disease that can cause swollen glands and painful or itchy skin rashes, including pimples or blisters.
The WHO’s health alert status has to do with the rapid expansion and high mortality of the new variant clade 1b on the African continent and a first case in Sweden of a traveller who was in an area of Africa where the virus is circulating intensely.
That variant is different from the clade 2which caused in 2022 a violent outbreak in Africa and hundreds of cases in Europe, North America and countries in other regions, and has already led to the declaration of an international health emergency between 2022 and 2023.
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