The World Health Organization has convened a meeting of its emergency committee to address the international spread of a deadly strain of monkeypox.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that public health officials are concerned that the virus “has the potential for further international spread within and beyond Africa.”
The new variant of the virus was discovered in April in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is now even more contagious and deadly, killing one in ten people who become infected.
Now the virus has spread beyond the DRC, prompting the WHO to call on public health experts to advise “on whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”
The DRC has a densely populated population that frequently travels and crosses borders, increasing the risk that the new MPOX variant will eventually spread outside the country.
According to the WHO, the virus has now “spread to previously unaffected provinces.”
At least 50 cases of MPock have been reported in the past month in four other countries bordering the DRC, where the virus has not previously been detected.
These include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Mpox caused an international epidemic in 2022 when the disease spread to more than 100 countries, killing hundreds of people, including 58 Americans.
That outbreak was caused by the milder clade 2 strain, which is rarely fatal.
But the DRC has been struggling for more than a year to contain a deadlier version of the virus, known as clade 1a, which kills up to 10 percent of those infected.
The new mutated strain, dubbed “clad 1b,” appears to be just as deadly.
Clad 1b has been confirmed in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and the virus found in Burundi is still being analyzed.
Dr. Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference that the DRC has been dealing with a “serious outbreak of Mpox” since the beginning of this year, with more than 14,000 cases of the virus recorded.
At least 511 people have died.
Although outbreaks of Mpox have been occurring in the DRC for decades, Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of cases has increased dramatically in 2024, with more cases recorded in the first six months of this year than in the whole of 2023.
The director-general added that the organization is working with the governments of affected countries, as well as the African CDC and non-governmental organizations to “understand and address the root causes of these outbreaks.”
He continued: “To stop the transmission of the virus, a comprehensive approach is needed, with communities at the centre.”
CDC officials said the latest surge in MPOX cases in DRC is the “largest surge of MPOX cases ever recorded.” It includes 19,919 cases and 975 deaths through April 2024
Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that as part of its regional response, WHO is not recommending any travel restrictions for affected countries and is asking the United States for $15 million to support surveillance, preparedness and response actions.
WHO is providing $1 million to scale up the response to the spread and is working with humanitarian organizations to access and distribute vaccines to affected areas.
The WHO has endorsed two vaccines to prevent Mpox infection. The organization recommends getting a vaccine within four days of contact with someone who has the virus, or within 14 days if there are no symptoms.
Healthcare providers and men who have sex with men are advised to get vaccinated, even if they have not been infected with the measles virus.
Symptoms of Mpox include rash, skin lesions, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, and swollen lymph nodes.
It is spread through physical contact such as kissing or sex, animals in cooking, contaminated equipment, and pregnant women who can transmit the virus to a fetus.
There is no direct cure for Mpox, but doctors try to treat the symptoms, including clearing the rash and relieving the pain.
Severe cases of smallpox can be fatal.
