WHO declares mpox spread in Africa a global public health emergency
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Key takeaways:
- Mpox, which caused a global outbreak in 2022, has rapidly spread across Africa this year.
- WHO and the Africa CDC have both declared public health emergencies over the spread.
WHO on Wednesday declared the spread of mpox in Africa to be a global public health emergency.
“The emergency committee met and advised me that, in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said during a press briefing.
“I have accepted advice [that] the detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), its detection in neighboring countries that had not reported mpox and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” Tedros said.
Tedros announced last week that he would convene an emergency committee to determine if the surge in mpox in the DRC and other countries in Africa warranted the emergency declaration. His decision to declare the emergency came about 15 months after he ended the public health emergency over the 2022 global outbreak.
Mpox vaccines are commercially available in the United States, although coverage among at-risk groups remains low. Among other groups, the CDC recommends mpox vaccination for people who have been exposed to the virus, people who have had sex with someone in the past 2 weeks who was diagnosed with mpox, and men who have sex with men who have had multiple sexual partners in the past 6 months.
Mpox vaccines are less available in Africa. In response to the emergency, the Africa CDC has asked the international community to procure 2 million vaccines to help stop the outbreak. The European Union has donated 215,000 doses, according to the Africa CDC, and HHS said the U.S. has pledged 50,000 doses of the FDA-approved Jynneos vaccine.
This year, there have been nearly 3,000 confirmed cases and 517 deaths from mpox in the 13 African countries — primarily in the DRC, but also in previously unaffected countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
There are more than 17,000 suspected cases across Africa, according to the Africa CDC, which also declared an mpox emergency for the continent — the first time the agency has done so in its history — based on the suspected number of cases having increased from more than 7,000 in 2022 to nearly 15,000 cases in 2023 to even more than that already this year.
“This empowers us to forge new partnerships, strengthen our health systems, educate our communities and deliver lifesaving interventions where they are needed most,” Africa CDC Director Jean Kaseya, MD, said in a press release, adding that “there is no need for travel restrictions at this time.”
It was the first time that regional and global health emergencies were declared at the same time, according to Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, chair in global health law and faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
“It is a moment to celebrate African empowerment and to call for global solidarity,” Gostin said in a statement provided to reporters. “We need to act urgently to protect people and prevent this outbreak from escalating into a pandemic. The coordinated response from the WHO and Africa CDC must be rooted in equity and solidarity if we are going to contain this outbreak.”
The outbreak is being caused by clade 1b mpox virus, which is different from the clade 2 virus that was responsible for the 2022 global outbreak. Clade 1 mpox previously was associated with nonsexual routes of transmission, but like clade 2 mpox, it is now being spread through sexual contact for the first time.
Overall, both clade 1b and clade 2 are spreading in Africa, with infections having been confirmed this year in Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
No cases of clade 1 mpox have been reported in the U.S., and few cases of any mpox infection have been reported to the CDC this year, although the agency has issued several warnings since last December for clinicians to be on the lookout for possible cases in travelers.
“It’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” Tedros said, noting that a public health emergency of international concern “is the highest level of alarm under international health law.”
[Editor’s note: This story was updated on Aug. 15 with information about mpox vaccines.]
References:
- Africa CDC declares mpox a public health emergency of continental security, mobilizing resources cross the continent. https://africacdc.org/news-item/africa-cdc-declares-mpox-a-public-health-emergency-of-continental-security-mobilizing-resources-across-the-continent/. Published Aug. 13, 2024. Accessed Aug. 14, 2024.
- CDC. Mpox: U.S. mpox case trends reported to CDC. https://cdc.gov/poxvirus/mpox/response/2022/mpx-trends.html. Updated Aug. 1, 2024. Accessed Aug. 14, 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. 14, 2024.
- European Commission coordinates procurement and donation of 215 000 vaccine doses from Bavarian Nordic to support Africa CDC in addressing the Mpox outbreak in Africa. https://africacdc.org/news-item/european-commission-coordinates-procurement-and-donation-of-215-000-vaccine-doses-from-bavarian-nordic-to-support-africa-cdc-in-addressing-the-mpox-outbreak-in-africa/. Published Aug. 14, 2024. Accessed Aug. 15, 2024.
- United States government’s response to the clade I mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries in the region. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/08/14/united-states-governments-response-clade-i-mpox-outbreak-democratic-republic-congo-other-countries-region.html. Published Aug. 14, 2024. Accessed Aug. 15, 2024.
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