The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared the ongoing mpox outbreak in Africa a global health emergency.
The WHO held its emergency committee meeting amid concerns that a more deadly strain of the virus, clade Ib, has reached four previously unaffected African countries. The strain was previously confined to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Independent experts met virtually Wednesday to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the severity of the outbreak. After those consultations, he declared a public health emergency of international concern.
“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that have not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond are deeply concerning,” he said.
“The emergency committee met and advised that this constitutes a public health emergency of international significance. I have accepted that advice.”
Also known as a PHEIC, the WHO designates an “extraordinary event” that poses a public health risk to other countries through the international spread of disease. The outbreak may require a coordinated international response, the organization says.
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“Everyone agrees that the current mpox outbreak, the mpox surge, is an extraordinary event,” said committee chair Dimie Ogoina. “What we have in Africa is the tip of the iceberg. … We don’t recognize, or we don’t have the full picture of the mpox burden.”
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of continental concern on Tuesday, the first such declaration by the agency since its founding in 2017.
Since the start of the year, more than 17,000 cases of mpox and more than 500 deaths have been reported in 13 countries in Africa, according to the Africa CDC, which classifies the outbreak as a “very high-risk event.” The highest number of cases — more than 14,000 — is in the DRC, which has reported 96% of the confirmed cases this month.
Read also: WHO Calls Emergency Meeting After Spike in Mpox Cases from Democratic Republic of Congo
Monkeypox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread easily between people and from infected animals. It can spread through close contact such as touching, kissing or sexual contact, as well as through contaminated materials such as bed linens, clothing and syringes, according to the WHO. Symptoms include fever, painful rash, headache, muscle and back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.
For decades, the disease was mostly found in Central and West Africa, but it also began to spread in Europe and North America in 2022. The WHO previously declared the spread of mpox a global health emergency in July 2022 and withdrew that declaration in May 2023.
Mpox is characterized by two genetic clades, I and II. A clade is a broad grouping of viruses that has evolved over decades and is a distinct genetic and clinical group. Clade II was responsible for the 2022 outbreak, but clade Ib causes more severe disease.
Also read: Mpox Discourse as an International Emergency, Government Needs to Tighten Borders
“But we are not dealing with one outbreak from one clade; we are dealing with multiple outbreaks from different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and levels of risk,” Tedros clarified.
No cases of clade I mpox have been identified in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but they are monitoring the situation, and the US government has offered funding, assistance, and vaccines to WHO and the DRC to support efforts in Africa.
The CDC recommended last week that people in the US who have been exposed to or are at high risk for contracting mpox should get vaccinated.
WHO officials said last week that the virus could be controlled “quite easily, if we do the right things at the right time.” They also called for international cooperation in financing and organizing efforts to curb the outbreak and funding research to understand clade Ib and its spread.
“It is clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop this outbreak and save lives,” Tedros said Wednesday.
The organization has approved the Emergency Use Listing process for the mpox vaccine and developed a regional response plan requiring US$15 million, with US$1.5 million released from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
Half a million doses of the vaccine are already available, and another 2.4 million doses could be produced by the end of the year, said Tim Nguyen of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. The DRC and Nigeria will be the first to receive the vaccine, added Dr. Abdou Salam Gueye, Regional Director for Africa Emergencies.
The organization stressed that vaccines are only part of the response; controlling the spread also requires increased monitoring, diagnostics and research to fill “gaps in understanding.”
“We can stop transmission of mpox with a collaborative effort using a variety of approaches,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty. … We have an opportunity right now to really take this time and support our member states to support the research that needs to be done to understand this.” (CNN/Z-3)
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