WHO considers declaring mpox a global public health emergency again
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Key takeaways:
- More than 14,000 cases of mpox have been reported in 10 African countries this year.
- One of three mpox viruses currently spreading causes more severe disease and carries a higher risk for death.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said Wednesday that he will convene an emergency committee to determine if the increasing spread of mpox in Africa represents a public health emergency of international concern.
As of July 28, more than 14,200 cases of mpox, including 456 deaths, have been reported from 10 countries in Africa, according to the Africa CDC — increases of 160% and 19%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2023.
The outbreak is being caused by clade I mpox virus, which is different from the clade IIb virus thar was responsible for the large global mpox outbreak in 2022. WHO declared an end to its public health emergency over that outbreak in May 2023.
Clade I mpox was previously associated with non-sexual routes of transmission, but like the clade at the center of the 2022 outbreak, it is now being spread through sexual contact for the first time.
The current outbreak started in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been linked to clade Ib, an offshoot of clade I, which is associated with more severe disease than clade II.
Clade Ib has in the last month moved beyond the DRC to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Clade Ia infections have been confirmed this year in the DRC, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, and clade II has been reported in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa.
Although no cases of clade I mpox have been reported in the United States, the CDC on Wednesday issued another alert for physicians to be alert for mpox cases. The agency
issued a health advisory about clade I mpox last December and warned physicians again in May to be on the lookout for possible cases in travelers from the DRC who may have been infected.
WHO said it has a regional response plan to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities and has already released $1 million from an agency emergency fun to scale up the response.
Additionally, Tedros said during the briefing that he has triggered the process for emergency use of two WHO-approved mpox vaccines. This, he said, will allow lower-income countries that have not approved the vaccines to use doses obtained by WHO partners.
Tedros said the committee will meet “as soon as possible” and be made up of a range of independent experts from around the world.
“WHO is working with the governments of the affected countries, the Africa CDC, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and other partners to understand and address the drivers of these outbreaks,” he said. “Stopping transmission will require a comprehensive response, with communities at the center.”
References:
- AfricaCDC. Mpox situation in Africa. https://africacdc.org/news-item/mpox-situation-in-africa/. Published July 31, 2024. Accessed Aug. 7, 2024.
- CDC. Mpox caused by human-to-human transmission of monkeypox virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2024/han00513.asp. Published Aug. 7, 2024. Accessed Aug. 7, 2024.
- WHO. WHO press conference on global health issues – 7 August 2024. https://www.who.int/multi-media/details/who-press-conference-on-global-health-issues---7-august-2024. Published Aug. 7, 2024. Accessed Aug. 7, 2024.
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