WHO says mpox continues to remain a public health emergency

A Nigerian health official administers a mpox vaccination at Federal Medical Center in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 18, 2024
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The Mpox outbreak continues to represent a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday, November 22, 2024.

The WHO first declared the emergency in August, when an outbreak of a new form of mpox spread from the badly-hit Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

Mpox is a viral infection that spreads through close contact, and typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild, but it can be lethal.

This year, there have been more than 46,000 suspected cases across Africa, mainly in Congo, and more than 1,000 suspected deaths.

The label of “public health emergency of international concern” is the WHO’s highest form of alert, and was also applied to a global outbreak of a different form of mpox in 2022-2023.

Watch: What is mpox?

Canada confirms first case of clade I mpox

Canada’s public health agency on Friday, November 22, 2024 confirmed the first case of clade I mpox in Canada, in a person in Manitoba.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said this travel-related case was associated with an ongoing outbreak of clade I mpox in central and eastern Africa.

“The individual sought medical care for mpox symptoms in Canada shortly after their return and is currently isolating,” the agency said in a statement.

Mpox vaccine for children

The World Health Organization has authorized the first mpox vaccine for children, a decision experts hope will help make immunisations more widely available to one of the hardest-hit populations during the ongoing outbreaks of the disease in Congo and elsewhere in Africa.

In a statement earlier this week, the U.N. health agency said it had approved the mpox vaccine made by Japanese company KM Biologics for use in children over 1 year of age as a single dose.

Earlier this month, the charity Save the Children said that cases among children younger than 18 had increased by more than 130% in Congo, noting there were now more than 25,000 suspect cases.

The charity said that children were almost four times more likely than adults to die from the newest form of mpox first detected in eastern Congo earlier this year.

Scientists have previously noted that mpox appears to be disproportionately affecting children in Congo and Burundi, which account for more than 90% of all mpox cases in Africa’s current outbreak.

WHO had previously approved the mpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic for people 18 and over, but said that the shot could be used in younger populations, if doctors thought the benefits might outweigh potential risks, given the lack of data in children and other groups including pregnant women.

Last week, WHO said cases of mpox in the Congolese region where the new, more infectious form was first identified appeared to be “ plateauing,” even as cases were rising elsewhere, including Burundi and Uganda.

So far, about 50,000 people in Congo have been immunized against mpox with the vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic.

WHO said Japan had announced it would donate about 3 million doses of the shot made by KM Biologics to Congo. It wasn’t clear whether any of the doses had arrived.

(With inputs from Reuters and AP)