WHO declares mpox a global health emergency

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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