A deadlier form of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been spreading across Africa, sparking fears of a more dangerous pandemic than when the virus spread globally in 2022.
Topline
The World Health Organization is considering declaring an international health emergency over an escalating mpox outbreak in Africa after the continent’s top public health body called its spread a public health emergency yesterday, warning the disease could snowball without immediate steps to contain it and stoking fears a deadlier mpox pandemic could be on the horizon.Key Facts
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union’s health watchdog and the top public health body on the continent, said a growing mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries constitutes a “public health emergency of continental security” on Tuesday.
The emergency designation is the agency’s first since launching in 2017 and comes amid growing concern among scientists over the rapid, unchecked spread of a concerning mpox strain that is more lethal than the version of the virus responsible for the global outbreak in 2022.
The variant, called mpox clade Ib (1B), is an offshoot of the clade I virus that has caused sporadic outbreaks in the DRC for decades and appears to spread more easily between people through routine close contact, especially among children.
Clade I infections have historically been confined to central Africa, predominantly the DRC, but the Africa CDC said the disease has now spread beyond Congo to at least 13 countries, with four—Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya—reporting their very first clade I cases in recent months.
Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya stressed the declaration is “not merely a formality” but a “clarion call to action” in recognition of a “crisis that demands our collective action.”
Kaseya said “there is no need for travel restrictions at this time,” adding the decision will unlock funding and other resources and mobilize institutions in affected countries to empower health officials to act “swiftly and decisively” in the face of outbreaks. News Peg
WHO’s emergency committee met Wednesday and declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, which is “the highest level of alarm under international health law,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, said during a press conference. This is the second time the agency has declared a global mpox outbreak: WHO declared a PHEIC in July 2022 and lifted the designation roughly a year later in May 2023.
