The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday declared that the increasing spread of Monkeypox (MPox) in Africa is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).
The declaration by WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came on the advice of an IHR Emergency Committee of independent experts who met earlier in the day to review data presented by experts from WHO and affected countries.
The Committee informed the Director-General that it considers the upsurge of mpox to be a PHEIC, with the potential to spread further across African countries and possibly outside the continent. In declaring the PHEIC, Dr Tedros said:
The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying.
On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.
WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said:
Significant efforts are already underway in close collaboration with communities and governments, with our country teams working on the frontlines to help reinforce measures to curb mpox.
With the growing spread of the virus, we’re scaling up further through coordinated international action to support countries bring the outbreaks to an end.
Committee Chair Professor Dimie Ogoina said:
The current upsurge of mpox in parts of Africa, along with the spread of a new sexually transmissible strain of the monkeypox virus, is an emergency, not only for Africa but for the entire globe.
Mpox, originating in Africa, was neglected there, and later caused a global outbreak in 2022. It is time to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself.
WHO said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year, which already exceeds last year’s figures.
So far, more than 96 per cent of all cases and deaths are in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared mpox a public health emergency on the continent on Tuesday.
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