NAIROBI: The African Union's health watchdog on Thursday said it was “likely” to declare a public health emergency next week over a growing mpox outbreak on the continent.
The decision will unlock funding to fight the outbreak, including the purchase of much-needed vaccines, and trigger a coordinated continental response to the virus.
Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said in an online media briefing that the declaration of a health emergency was “likely” next week.
At least 16 of the continent's 55 nations have been affected by mpox, according to the Africa CDC.
Since January 2022, there have been 38,465 cases and 1,456 deaths in Africa.
Of these, 887 cases and five deaths were reported last week, according to data from the Africa CDC.
“We are moving from two outbreaks a week to three new outbreaks a week,” Kaseya said, adding that the continent lacks vaccines.
Formerly known as monkeypox, empox is an infectious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted from infected animals to humans but can also be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscle aches and skin lesions like large boils.
The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday that it is urgently convening an expert committee to advise on whether to declare the growing mpox outbreak in Africa an international emergency.
“The committee will meet as soon as possible and will be made up of independent experts on a range of relevant topics from around the world,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
The committee will advise him that the outbreak represents a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) – the highest alarm the WHO can sound.
Only Tedros, as WHO Director-General, can announce the PHEIC, based on the advice of the expert committee. A declaration then triggers emergency responses in countries worldwide under legally binding international health regulations.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
There are two subtypes of the virus: the more virulent and deadly clade I, endemic to the Congo basin in central Africa; and Clade II, endemic to West Africa.
In May 2022, mpox infections increased worldwide due to the clade IIb subclade, mostly affecting homosexual and bisexual men.
Deadlier and more transmissible than previous forms, the mpox strain that has grown in the DRC since September, known as the Clade Ib subclade, has spread from person to person.
Clade Ib strains cause skin rashes all over the body, unlike other strains where lesions and rashes are usually limited to the mouth, face and genitals.
