WHO Declares Health Emergency Over Mpox

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The World World Health Organisation (WHO), has declared Mpox disease a global health emergency.

The WHO’s designation of Mpox as a “public health emergency of international concern” is intended to prompt emergency response by member countries and to begin preparations against possible outbreak of the Mpox disease in their territories.

It will also afford them the opportunity to share vaccines, treatments and other key resources with poorer nations.

This will be the second time in three years that the WHO has designated an Mpox epidemic as a global emergency.

It had previously done so in July 2022, when the disease affected nearly 100,000 people, primarily gay and bisexual men, in 116 countries, and killed about 200 people.

The decision of the apex world health body came on the heals of a similar declaration by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention – Africa CDC on Tuesday.

WHO said the health emergency became necessary following the rapid spread of Mpox since the beginning of the year with the Democratic Republic of Congo alone reporting more than 14,000 Mpox cases and 524 deaths.

According to WHO, those most at risk included women and children under 15.

While declaring the Health emergency,  WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, “The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of Mpox in eastern D.R.C., its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported Mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying.”

He said the outbreak has spread through 13 countries in Africa, including a few that had never reported Mpox cases before.

“What we’re seeing is tip of the iceberg” because of weaknesses in the surveillance system, Says Dr. Dimie Ogoina, Chair of the emergency committee convened by WHO and an infectious disease physician at Niger Delta University in Nigeria. This is something that should concern us all,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a “public health emergency of continental security.”

The centre had warned last week of an alarming rate of spread of the viral infection, which is transmitted through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.

“Most cases are mild but it can kill. We declare today this public health emergency of continental security to mobilise our institutions, our collective will, and our resources to act swiftly and decisively,” Director General Jean Kaseya said in a briefing that was live-streamed on Zoom.

According to the Centre, Mpox outbreak in Congo began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as Clade I.

“But the new variant, known as Clade Ib, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, particularly among children,” said the Centre.

Director General of Africa CDC, Dr. Jean Kaseya, said in the briefing that the continent needed more than 10 million doses of the vaccine, but only about 200,000 were available.

He promised that the Africa CDC would work to quickly increase the supply to the continent.

“We have a clear plan to secure more than 10m doses in Africa, starting with 3m doses in 2024,” he added, without saying where the vaccines would be sourced,” he said.