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Almost all parties agree that there is work to be done. The World Health Organization (WHO) has activated its highest alert level due to a new variant of the Mpox virus in Africa and declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC). The WHO believes there is a risk that Mpox could spread internationally again after 2022 and pose a health risk to several countries.
As WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva, the organization followed the recommendation of independent Mpox experts who had met in the so-called Emergency Committee at WHO’s invitation. The emergency declaration has no concrete consequences. Rather, it is intended to alert authorities around the world so that they can prepare for possible outbreaks.
The WHO’s concern relates, among other things, to a new virus variant discovered in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the end of 2023. It is a subline of Mpox clade I (Roman one), called Ib. It could be more contagious than previous variants and trigger more severe courses of the disease. Detailed studies on this are still pending. In recent weeks, clade I Mpox has been discovered for the first time in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.
Risk in Europe is still “very low”
The European health authority ECDC assessed the risk of the new variant spreading in Europe as “very low” at the end of July. Mpox was called monkeypox because it was first detected in monkeys by chance. The WHO decided on the new name because they do not name diseases after animals or countries where they are discovered to prevent discrimination.
The virus is related to the classic smallpox virus (variola virus). It causes mainly a skin rash but also a fever and can be fatal, especially for children. The vaccine against the smallpox virus also protects against infection with the Mpox virus.
The African Health Authority (CDC) has already reported more than 14,000 suspected cases and more than 500 deaths from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries this year. Only a small proportion of these have been detected in the laboratory. However, it has already declared an emergency for Africa. This will allow more funds to be mobilized to help countries contain the disease. The WHO receives fewer than 1,000 laboratory-confirmed cases a month from all over the world. It assumes that not all cases are detected due to a lack of testing capacity.
Emergency already in July
The WHO had already declared an emergency due to Mpox in July 2022. At that time, there were cases in more than 60 countries, including Germany and Austria. The infections were due to clade II, which causes less severe disease courses. The emergency was lifted in May 2023 because the outbreaks had also been controlled with vaccines in most countries. In Africa and other countries in the global South, however, the supply of vaccines has been limited.
Since May 23, 2022, 348 cases of Mpox have been reported in Austria (as of June 12, 2024). Of these, eleven Mpox cases were reported in 2023 and ten cases in 2024 up to this date, according to AGES. The disease is notifiable in this country.
- source: oe24.at/picture: Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay
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