The World Health Organisation has called for an emergency meeting on mpox following its spread outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Mpox is a viral disease endemic in Central and West Africa. It can be transmitted through physical contact with an infected person, animal or contaminated materials.

Symptoms include skin rash or lesions accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes. Mpox came to global prominence two years ago after cases emerged across the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

That outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022 and ended the following May. In light of the situation and the potential for further international spread within and outside Africa, WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus convened an emergency committee.

The committee is to advise him on whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern. The designation is the UN agency’s highest level of alert.

“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,” he said in Geneva on Wednesday.

Mr Ghebreyesus said the DRC had been experiencing a severe outbreak of mpox since the beginning of the year. More than 14,000 cases and 511 deaths have been reported.

Although outbreaks have been reported in the country for decades, and the number of cases reported annually has been increasing steadily, the caseload for the first six months of this year matches the total of 2023.

“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: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda,” he said.

Mr Ghebreyesus explained that mpox outbreaks are caused by different viruses called clades.

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

Mr Ghebreyesus stressed that stopping transmission will require a comprehensive response that puts communities at the centre.

WHO has also developed a $15 million regional response plan to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities. This is in addition to releasing 1 million dollars from an emergency fund to support the scale-up of the response, with more to follow.

Currently, two mpox vaccines have been approved by WHO-listed national regulatory authorities, and its expert group on immunisations, SAGE, have also been recommended.

(NAN)