WHO declares mpox a global health emergency

An outbreak of the viral disease formerly known as monkeypox continues to spread in Africa

Sign on mpox at Cancun airport in Mexico
The good news is there's a vaccine for the viral disease. The bad news is there isn't enough vaccine to stop the spread in Africa.
(Image credit: Geography Photos / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

What happened

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox outbreak in Africa a "public health emergency of international concern." The highly infectious strain of mpox, formerly called monkeypox, has jumped from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to a dozen other African countries.

Who said what

The spread and adaptability of this mpox strain is "very worrying," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "A coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives." The WHO last designated mpox a global emergency in 2022, when an outbreak affected nearly 100,000 people, "primarily gay and bisexual men, in 116 countries," The New York Times said. That outbreak killed about 200 people.

In the DRC, children make up "the majority of the 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths so far" this year, NPR said. The global health emergency designation will unlock certain resources to help contain and neutralize this outbreak. But it's a "failure of the global community that things had to get this bad to release the resources needed," Michael Marks, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Associated Press

What next?

Declaring mpox a global health emergency is "intended to prompt member countries to begin preparing for the virus' appearance and to share vaccines, treatments and other key resources with poorer nations," the Times said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted American clinicians about the outbreak last week. 

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.