Mpox declared a public health emergency - as disease is likened to the 'early days of HIV'

14 August 2024, 19:07 | Updated: 14 August 2024, 19:42

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared M-pox a public health emergency following its rapid and "very worrying" spread across Africa.

The WHO met on Wednesday to decide whether M-pox, formerly known as Monkeypox, should be deemed an international health concern.

The outbreak now resembles the "early days of HIV" according to leading scientists.

Authorities in Africa have declared the emergency, with more than 14-thousand cases this year.

This marks the second time the sickness has been declared a public health emergency since cases first surged in 2022.

"The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], its detection in neighbouring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday.

The Africa CDC previously said that m-pox has been detected in 13 countries this year, and that more than 96% of all cases and deaths are in Congo.

Cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19% compared with the same period last year.

So far, there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 people have died.

Trudie Lang, a professor of global health research at Oxford University, said: “I have heard so many people refer to this as being very similar to the early days of HIV.”

Lang added: “What I’m truly worried about is the amount of cases that are not severe.

"If people have got a more mild infection that is potentially hidden, especially if it’s a sexually transmitted genital infection, they can be walking around with it.

“The big question that we’ve got is when is it most infectious, and when is it being transmitted?”

Professor Jonathan Ball from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine says countries, including in Europe, need to be on alert.

Testing must now be accelerated, with wider access to testing, vaccines and therapeutic drugs, according to officials.

The WHO added there remain “massive unknowns” where the disease is concerned.

M-pox, formerly known as Monkey Pox, occurs mostly in central and western Africa.

The virus was first identified in laboratory monkeys and spreads through close contact with infected people, including via sex, the CDC has said.

This recent outbreak has been fueled by a new variant of the disease, known as Clade b, and can be spread more easily through physical contact, especially amongst children.

Symptoms listed by the CDC include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache and respiratory symptoms (e.g., sore throat, nasal congestion, or cough)

Currently, no treatment exists for those suffering from m-pox.

However, a two-dose vaccine is available to prevent contraction of the disease.

Dr Ayoade Alakija, the chair of Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance and of the diagnostics non-profit organisation Find, has said if M-pox originated in Europe, officials would have declared a health emergency much sooner.

“There is an urgent need for more in-depth investigation to better understand mpox transmission dynamics to guide controls and response plans, as well as enhanced surveillance and equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments for all affected populations. Most vaccines and treatments have been pre-ordered by rich countries and as yet only one diagnostic test exists,” said Alakija.

“Without fair access to testing, it is also unclear how viruses like HIV may impact the severity and transmission of mpox,” she added.

“Not focusing on tackling the virus in the DRC has led almost inevitably to spillover to neighbouring countries and the longer action is delayed, the more likely it will spread in Africa and beyond.”