WHO convenes emergency meeting on Mpox outbreak

Dar es Salaam. The World Health Organisation (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called an emergency meeting of international experts to discuss whether the outbreak of Mpox is a public health emergency of international concern.

Formerly known as monkeypox, mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals that can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in DR Congo, causing fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

“In light of the spread of Mpox outside the DRC and the potential for further international spread within and outside Africa,

I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to advise me on whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” Dr Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday.

The committee will meet as soon as possible and will be made up of independent experts from a range of relevant disciplines from around the world.

A public health emergency of international concern is the highest alarm the WHO can sound and allows Dr Tedros to trigger emergency responses under the International Health Regulations.

Outbreaks of Mpox have been reported in the DRC for decades, and the number of cases reported each year has been increasing steadily.

Since the beginning of this year, the DRC has been experiencing a severe outbreak of Mpox, with more than 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths, according to the WHO.

The number of cases reported in the first six months of this year matches the number reported in all of last year, and the virus has spread to previously unaffected provinces, Dr Ghebreyesus said.

In the past month, about 50 confirmed and more suspected cases have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported before.

The countries include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Mpox outbreaks are caused by different viruses called clades.

WHO said clade 1 has been circulating in the DRC for years, while clade 2 was responsible for the global outbreak that began in 2022.

The current outbreak in the Eastern DRC is caused by a new offshoot of clade 1, called clade 1b, which causes more severe disease than clade 2, it added.

Clade 1b has been confirmed in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, while the clade in Burundi is still being analysed.

At the same time, cases of clade 1a have been reported this year in the DRC, the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo, while clade 2 has been reported in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa.

“WHO is working with the governments of the affected countries, the Africa CDC, NGOs, civil society and other partners to understand and address the drivers of these outbreaks,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

WHO has developed a regional response plan, requiring $15 million to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities. $1 million was already released from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

to support scale-up of the response, and plans are underway to release more in the coming days.

According to the agency, there are two vaccines for Mpox that have been approved by WHO-listed national regulatory authorities and which are recommended by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation, or SAGE.

“I have triggered the process for Emergency Use Listing of both vaccines, which will accelerate vaccine access, particularly for lower-income countries, which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

Emergency Use Listing also enables partners, including Gavi and UNICEF, to procure vaccines for distribution.