WHO declares mpox public health emergency as cases surge in Africa

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The World Health Organization has triggered a second international public health emergency in barely two years over an outbreak of mpox, in a sign of growing alarm over the infectious disease’s spread in Africa.

The Geneva-based UN body issued the announcement late on Wednesday, a day after the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention made a similar move, and urged the world to help tackle a surge in cases in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mpox has become a growing focus of concern as an example of the rising global threat of zoonotic diseases, which are transmitted from animals to humans. The WHO has called on mpox vaccine-makers to apply for approvals for emergency use to speed up delivery.

The latest rise in case numbers was “very worrying”, warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

“It’s clear that a co-ordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” he said.

The WHO is helping countries carry out contact tracing, analyse blood samples and roll out vaccines, he added.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, can cause fever, skin lesions and sometimes death. It can be more severe among patients with uncontrolled HIV and is transmitted through contact with infected people or animals, or contaminated materials.

At least 13 countries have reported outbreaks and there have been 2,863 cases and 517 deaths this year, the Africa CDC said on Tuesday.

The more severe clade 1b variant was detected in the DRC last September and has now been traced in neighbouring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

The WHO warned in a report this week that limited access to testing in rural areas meant confirmed case counts were underestimates.

“This is not just another challenge; it’s a crisis that demands our collective action,” said Africa CDC director-general Dr Jean Kaseya. “The battle against mpox demands a global response. We need your support, expertise, and solidarity. The world cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this crisis.”

The DRC is the epicentre of the disease, with about 15,000 estimated cases identified this year, more than the total in 2023. The country has never had any supplies of mpox vaccines.

Save the Children has warned of “overcrowded hospitals” in the DRC, highlighting an “already fragile health system that is still reeling from past outbreaks of Ebola and Covid-19 and a scarcity of staff and medical supplies”.

Experts have said the current outbreak may be more serious than the previous WHO mpox health emergency of July 2022 to May 2023.

“It’s clear that we’re facing a different scenario with far more cases, resulting in a higher burden of illness,” said Professor Salim Abdool Karim, director of Caprisa, an Aids research programme in South Africa.

The 2022-23 outbreak included cases among people who had travelled to North America and western Europe, but not west and central African countries where the disease is endemic. It was the first time that so many cases and clusters had been reported concurrently in such a wide range of regions, the WHO said.

Bavarian Nordic, a Danish maker of one of two vaccines recommended by WHO experts, on Tuesday said it had received an order of more than 175,000 doses through the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). The company has also donated a further 40,000 doses to HERA.

But African CDC has said it needs 2mn doses this year and 10mn doses in total to effectively control the outbreak.