WHO declares mpox outbreak in Africa a global health emergency as new strain of virus spreads

LONDON — The World Health Organization declared an outbreak of mpox in Congo and other parts of Africa a global emergency on Wednesday, with confirmed cases among children and adults in more than a dozen countries. and a new type of virus is spreading. Few doses of the vaccine are available on the continent.

Earlier this week, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency, with more than 500 deaths, and called for international help to stop the spread. virus.

“This is something that should concern us all… The possibility of it spreading within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Africa CDC previously said mpox, also known as monkeypox, has been found in 13 countries this year, and more than 96% of all cases and diseases are in Congo. Cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19% compared to the same period last year. So far, there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 people have died.

“We are now at a point where (mpox) poses a threat to many of Africa’s neighbors and around central Africa,” said Salim Abdool Karim, a South African infectious disease expert who heads the CDC’s Africa emergency team. . He said that the new type of mpox spreading from Congo appears to have a mortality rate of about 3-4%.

In 2022, the WHO declared mpox to be a global emergency after it was reported in more than 70 countries that had not yet reported mpox, mainly affecting men and women. different. In that explosion, less than 1% of people died.

Michael Marks, a professor of medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said publicizing the latest outbreak of mpox in Africa is worth it if it leads to more support for having them.

He said: “It is a failure of the world community that things had to be so bad to release the necessary resources.

Officials at the Africa CDC said that about 70% of Congo’s cases are in children under 15, who are also responsible for 85% of deaths.

Jacques Alonda, an epidemiologist working in Congo with international aid agencies, said he and other experts are very concerned about the spread of mpox in refugee camps in the conflict-ridden east of the country.

“The worst case I have ever seen is that of a six-week-old child, who was only two weeks old when he contracted chicken pox,” Alonda said, adding that the baby had and the moon is in their care. “He became infected because overcrowding in the hospital meant he and his mother were forced to share a room with someone who had the virus, which was undiagnosed. .”

Save the Children said Congo’s health system was already “suffering” from malnutrition, measles and cholera.

The UN health agency said mpox was recently identified for the first time in four East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. All those disasters are linked to the Congo. In the Ivory Coast and South Africa, health authorities have reported outbreaks of a different and less dangerous type of mpox that have spread worldwide in 2022.

Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new deadly strain of mpox, which can kill up to 10% of people, in a Congolese mining town they feared could spread easily. Mpox is usually spread through close contact with infected people, including through sex.

Unlike previous outbreaks of mpox, where lesions were often seen on the chest, arms and legs, the new strain causes mild symptoms and lesions on the genitals. That makes it harder for them, which means that people can also get sick from others without knowing they are infected.

Prior to the 2022 outbreak, the disease was often seen in short-term outbreaks in central and West Africa when people came into close contact with infected wild animals.

Western countries during the 2022 crisis stopped the spread of mpox with the help of vaccines and treatment, but very little is available in Africa.

Marks of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that in the absence of mpox vaccines licensed in the West, authorities may consider vaccinating people against smallpox, a related disease. “We need a large supply of the vaccine so that we can vaccinate the most vulnerable,” he said, adding that would mean sex workers, children and adults living in endemic areas.

Congo has not received the mpox vaccines it requested.

Congolese authorities say they have requested 4 million doses, Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of the Congolese Monkeypox Response Committee, told The Associated Press. Kacita Osako said these will mostly be used on children under the age of 18.

“The United States and Japan are two countries that are willing to provide vaccines to our country,” said Kacita Osako.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian mpox expert who was the chairman of the WHO emergency committee, says there are still big gaps in understanding how mpox spreads in Africa. He asked for a strong monitoring of this epidemic.

Ogoina said: “We are working blindly as we cannot investigate all suspected cases.”

Although the WHO’s emergency announcement is intended to spur donor organizations and countries to take action, the global response to previous announcements has been mixed.

Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said the WHO’s last emergency declaration for mpox “did very little to move the needle” to get things like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to Africa.

“The world has a real opportunity here to act decisively and not repeat past mistakes, (but) it will take more than an (emergency) announcement,” Titanji said.

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Associated Press writers Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, Christina Malkia in Kinshasa, Congo and Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.