Nairobi: The African Union's health watchdog said on Thursday there was a “high chance” it would declare a public health emergency next week as the Empox outbreak spreads across the continent.
The decision will provide funding to combat the outbreak, including procuring much-needed vaccines, and will serve as a catalyst for coordinating a continental response to the virus.
Jean Kaseya, director of the Africa CDC, told an online media briefing that it was “highly likely” a health emergency would be declared next week.
According to the Africa CDC, at least 16 of the continent's 55 countries are infected with mpox.
Since January 2022, there have been about 38,465 cases and 1,456 deaths reported in Africa.
According to data from Africa CDC, there were 887 confirmed cases and five deaths reported last week.
“We are going from two new cases a week to three new cases a week,” Kaseya said, adding that there is a shortage of vaccines on the continent.
Monkeypox, formerly called monkeypox, is an infectious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans through infected animals, but can also be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscle pain, and skin lesions such as large boils.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that it was urgently convening an expert committee to advise on whether the outbreak of Mmpox in Africa should be declared a public health emergency of international concern.
“The committee will meet as soon as possible and will be comprised of independent experts from a range of relevant disciplines from around the world,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference.
The committee will advise him on whether the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of alert that WHO can issue.
Only WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus can declare a PHEIC based on the advice of an expert committee. The declaration then triggers an emergency response in countries around the world under legally binding international health regulations.
Mpox was first discovered in humans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1970.
There are two subtypes of this virus: the more virulent and lethal clade I, which is prevalent in the Congo Basin of central Africa, and clade II, which is prevalent in West Africa.
In May 2022, a global surge in mpox infections occurred due to the Clade IIb subtype, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men.
The mpox strains that have been surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo since September are known as clade Ib subclades and are more lethal, contagious and transmissible from person to person than previous variants.
Clade Ib strains cause skin rashes all over the body, whereas other strains have lesions and rashes that are mainly confined to the mouth, face, and genitals.
