WHO declares international mpox emergency
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The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the deadly new form of mpox spreading through parts of Africa a global health emergency.
Why it matters: The outbreak is more serious than the mpox epidemic that blanketed the world in 2022 and 2023, and this emergency designation could accelerate the sharing of vaccines and other countermeasures with affected nations.
State of play: An emergency committee convened by the WHO said mpox now amounts to a public health emergency of international concern, which is the highest alert level under international health law.
- "We are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a committee meeting on Wednesday.
WHO developed a $15 million regional response plan for surveillance, preparedness and response. It's already tapped $1.45 million from an emergency fund but is asking donors to pitch in, according to the UN.
- The U.S. last week pledged $424 million in aide to the Democratic Republic of the Congo — at the epicenter of the current outbreak — including 50,000 vaccines.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also alerted doctors to be on the lookout for a deadly new strain, known as clade I, while noting the risk of importation to the U.S. remains very low.
By the numbers: More than 14,000 cases of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, have been reported so far this year, and 524 people have died, according to the UN. Children account for the majority of cases reported in the DRC.
- In contrast, more than 87,000 cases of mpox and 140 deaths were reported during the global outbreak, between January 2022 and May 2023.
