The Highest Alarm: WHO Declares Monkeypox a Global Public Health Emergency (PHEIC)
- charlesopendi
- Aug 16, 2024
- 4 min read
Date: Friday 16-August-2024
Author: Charles Opendi
RTE News. Updated: Thursday, 15 Aug 2024 07:36
And By Maya Davis, CNN News (Updated 4:41 PM EDT, Wed August 14, 2024)
African countries affected by Monkeypox (mpox) by August 13th 2024. (Photo credit. Africa CDC and iStock)
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the monkey pox (mpox) surge in Africa a global public health emergency, sounding its highest possible alarm over the worsening situation.
An emergency committee met to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on whether the disease outbreak constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern," or PHEIC.
Background
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can easily spread between people and from infected animals. It can spread through close contact such as touching, kissing or sex, as well as through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing and needles, according to WHO. Symptoms include a fever, a painful rash, headache, muscle and back pain, low energy, and enlarged lymph nodes. Scientists suspect African rodents and non-human primates (like monkeys) might harbor the virus and infect people. The first human case of mpox was recorded in 1970, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2022, mpox spread around the world.18 Apr 2024.
Variant of concern, distribution and Message from WHO Director General.
The outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I.
However, a new variant, clade Ib, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact. Its spread to many African countries as seen in the map above has led the World Health Organization to declare it as global public health emergency following the previous consultation with the new variant, Clade Ib has spread from DR Congo to neighbouring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, triggering the action from the WHO.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths reported so far this year in DR Congo have already exceeded last year's total.
"The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighbouring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying," Dr Tedros added.
"In the past month, about 90 cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
"But we are not dealing with one outbreak of one clade: we are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk," Dr Tedros said.
Dr Tedros said that WHO had released $1.5 million in contingency funds and plans to release more in the coming days.
WHO's response plan would require an initial $15 million, and the agency plans to appeal to donors for funding.
The committee advised Dr Tedros that the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) - the highest alarm the WHO can sound.
A PHEIC declaration then triggers emergency responses in countries worldwide under the legally binding International Health Regulations.
It is the second PHEIC in succession on mpox - albeit one focused on a different, and more deadly, strain of the virus.
In May 2022, Mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the Clade 2b subclade.
The WHO declared a public health emergency which lasted from July 2022 to May 2023. The outbreak, which has now largely subsided, caused some 140 deaths out of around 90,000 cases.
mpox Presentation and Vaccination.
The clade 1b subclade, which has been surging in the DRC since September 2023, causes more severe disease than clade 2b, with a higher fatality rate.
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large, boil-like skin lesions.
Two vaccines for mpox are recommended by WHO immunisation experts.
A PHEIC has only been declared seven times since 2009: over H1N1 swine flu, poliovirus, Ebola, Zika virus, Ebola again, Covid-19 and mpox.
According to CNN News, The World Health Organization has signed off on the Emergency Use Listing process for both mpox vaccines and developed a regional response plan requiring $15 million, with $1.5 million released from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
Half a million doses of the vaccine are in stock, and another 2.4 million could possibly be produced by the end of the year, according to Tim Nguyen of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. The DRC and Nigeria will be the first to receive these vaccines, African Regional Emergency Director Dr. Abdou Salam Gueye added.
The organization emphasized that vaccines are only part of the response; containing the spread will also require increased surveillance, diagnostics and research to fill “gaps in understanding.”
“We can stop transmission of mpox with a concerted effort using multiple approaches,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty. … We have an opportunity right now to really leverage this time and support our member states to support the research that needs to be done to better understand this.”
References
RTE News. WHO declares mpox a global public health emergency.Updated / Thursday, 15 Aug 2024 07:36.
Access URL here. https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2024/0814/1464965-mpox-health-;emergency/
CNN News. WHO declares mpox outbreak a global health emergency. By Maya Davis, CNN Updated 4:41 PM EDT, Wed August 14, 2024.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/14/health/mpox-who-public-health-emergency/index.html
Access full PDF Here.
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