Mpox Outbreak Declared Global Health Emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the current outbreak of mpox in parts of Africa is a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus classified the outbreak with the organization’s highest level of concern, a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), on 14 August.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) also declared the outbreak a public health emergency of continental security the day before the WHO’s announcement. Africa CDC’s announcement is the first of its kind since its inception in 2017.
The zoonotic virus is made up of two genetic clades—a subgroup of viruses that have evolved into a genetically distinct group.
A deadlier strain of the mpox virus (mpox clade 1b) has been reported in four African nations that were previously unaffected. Previously, reports of the virus were contained to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which neighbors the four other nations with new cases.
Within the past month, roughly 90 cases of mpox clade 1b were reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, according to Tedros’s speech about the declaration.
“But we are not dealing with one outbreak of one clade—we are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk,” Tedros said.
The WHO declared that the virus was an emergency in 2022; however, that outbreak was brought under control after vaccines and behavioral changes and practices were advocated for and adopted by those at risk.
The virus spreads through close contact, including sexual contact. Those infected may experience flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Although infections are usually mild, children, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems are at a higher risk of developing complications that can prove fatal.
“But mpox has been a public health problem in parts of Africa for decades,” Reuters reported. “The first ever human case was in Congo in 1970, and it has had outbreaks ever since.”
The current outbreak is considered to be the worst Congo has ever experienced, with approximately 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths reported since January 2023. In 2024 so far, there have been more than 15,000 reported cases and 537 deaths, already surpassing the numbers for all of 2023, according to The Washington Post.
The latest outbreak is composed of two strains; one of them is new and appears to be highly transmissible. Unlike COVID-19, this virus does not spread easily through the air.
In Congo, children make up the majority of the cases, according to NPR. “Experts say the high number of cases and deaths among children is likely because they don’t have protection from the smallpox vaccine—which was discontinued after that related virus was eliminated in 1980—and because about 40 percent of children in the region are malnourished, making it harder for their bodies to fight off the virus,” NPR reported.
With the emergency declaration, scientists hope for greater efforts for additional medical support and funding for Congo so authorities can address the outbreak.
“But in 2022, a WHO appeal for $34 million to fight mpox got no take-up from donors, and there was huge inequity in who had access to vaccine doses,” Reuters reported. “African countries had no access to the two shots used in the global outbreak, made by Bavarian Nordic and KM Biologics. Two years later, that remains the case.”
The WHO is conducting a needs assessment to address the outbreak, anticipating that $15 million will be needed to support surveillance, preparedness, and response activities. With the declaration, WHO has released $1.45 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies for immediate response activities. The organization is appealing to countries and vaccine manufacturers for potential donations for assistance.
