Mpox in Africa: WHO and Africa CDC consider declaring public health emergency as cases spike

The World Health Organisation will decide this week whether to declare mpox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) as cases surge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and spread rapidly to the rest of the continent, WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on 10 August.

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, also said last week that Africa will “most likely” declare mpox a regional public health emergency in the hope of preventing the viral disease from becoming “another pandemic.”

Mpox cases are up 160% on this time last year and spiked in the week to 4 August, spreading to six new countries in 10 days, data presented by Kaseya at a media briefing in Addis Ababa showed.

Kesaya said mpox’s spread to new countries is “critical” and “demonstrates the need …