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Independent experts appointed by the World Health Organization will meet virtually on Wednesday to help decide whether the mpox outbreak in Africa is a global public health emergency.
The committee will advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on whether mpox constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) and what recommendations he should issue to manage the spread of the disease.
Vaccine manufacturers can now apply to WHO for an emergency licence that would allow international groups including UNICEF and Gavi the Vaccine Alliance to procure and distribute their shots, the U.N. body confirmed on August 9.
In June, Bavarian Nordic sent 15,000 doses of its vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the majority of cases have been detected.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has called for “global solidarity”, pointing out that the region needs 10 million vaccine doses but currently has access to just 200,000. The agency confirmed it will also consider whether to declare a continental emergency this week.
The virus has now been reported in at least 13 African countries this year. In the past month, four countries — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — have reported mpox cases for the first time. There have been 517 deaths from 17,541 confirmed and suspected human cases in 2024 so far.
Concern has been growing over the outbreak in recent weeks after a new and more deadly strain of the mpox virus spread from the DRC to neighboring countries.
