MPOX outbreaks ‘can be controlled and stopped’, says WHO

The WHO’s global strategic plan for preparedness and response to MPOX, launched in 2018, covers the period from September 2024 to February 2025, according to a statement. It provides that $135 million (€121 million) will be required to finance the international response, including, among others, WHO, member states and partners including the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

WHO will soon launch its appeal for funds to clarify its needs. In the meantime, it has released about $1.5 million from its contingency fund for emergencies. “The outbreaks of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries can be contained and stopped,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

A virus circulating at low levels across the world

The resurgence of MPOX and the emergence of a new variant (clade 1b), first detected in the DRC, prompted the WHO to declare its highest level of alert at the international level on August 14. The WHO had already taken such a decision in 2022 when an MPOX epidemic, carried by clade 2b, had spread across the world. The alert was lifted in May 2023.

“Since the start of the global mpox outbreak in 2022, more than 100,000 confirmed cases have been reported to WHO. The virus continues to circulate at low levels across the world,” Dr Tedros said when presenting the strategic plan to the organisation’s member states on Friday.

But he stressed that “the African region has seen an unprecedented increase and geographic expansion.” The DRC accounts for 90% of the cases reported in 2024, with more than 16,000 suspected cases, including 575 deaths, recorded since January.

A resurgence driven by two epidemics

“This resurgence is driven by two separate outbreaks — in different parts of the country — of two strains, or clades, of the virus that causes MPOS,” he explained, but the rapid spread of clade 1b “is the primary reason why I have decided to declare a public health emergency of international concern.”

MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but is also transmitted between humans through physical contact. It causes fever, muscle aches and skin lesions.