WHO Schedules Emergency Meeting Over Mpox Outbreak

The meeting will be held to see whether the virus is a ‘public health emergency of international concern,’ the WHO said.

A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. CDC/Handout via Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that it will hold an emergency meeting on mpox and the decision whether to declare the virus “a public health emergency of international concern,” its director-general confirmed over the weekend.

The emergency meeting will be held on Aug. 14 to assess whether the status of mpox—a virus previously referred to as monkeypox that has been spreading in about 10 African nations—should prompt the international emergency declaration, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media.

“If so, it will advise me on the temporary recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global public health response,” he said.

A public health emergency of international concern is the WHO’s highest alarm and allows the U.N. agency to use emergency responses under its international health regulations. Since 2005, there have been seven such declarations, including for COVID-19 in 2020, the zika virus epidemic in 2015, and previous mpox outbreaks in 2022 and 2023.

Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to people from infected animals, but it can be passed from person to person via close physical contact. Symptoms include boil-like skin lesions and rashes, a fever, and muscle aches.

Officials say that a strain of the virus known as Clade I, which is currently affecting several African countries, may cause illness that is more severe than that caused by the variant known as Clade II, which caused a worldwide outbreak in 2022.

Kenya and the Central African Republic declared new outbreaks of mpox in statements last week.

Nairobi announced its outbreak on Aug. 7, after a case was detected in a passenger traveling from Uganda to Rwanda at a border crossing in southern Kenya. The Central African Republic was the first to declare a new outbreak on Aug. 5, saying it extends to its capital of Bangui.

“We are very concerned about the cases of monkeypox, which is ravaging region 7 of the country,” the Central African Republic’s public health minister, Pierre Somse, said last week.

The worst hit on the continent is Congo, which has recorded more than 12,000 cases and at least 470 deaths this year in its biggest outbreak. South Africa, which last recorded an mpox case in 2022, has also reported an outbreak this year.

In the Central African Republic, where the infection is most common in remote areas, authorities called for public support to assist efforts being taken by the government to slow the spread of the disease.

The warnings were made as mpox has surged in the Democratic Republic of Congo because of a more severe strain of the virus that has been reported in neighboring countries in recent months. So far, it has been detected in 10 African countries in 2024, according to the Africa CDC in its most recent update.

On Aug. 7, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert for doctors and other health care officials to be alert for mpox in light of the Africa outbreaks.

Although the U.S. health agency said no cases of mpox have been reported outside central and eastern Africa at this time, it expressed concern about the Clade I strain.

“Because there is a risk of additional spread, CDC recommends clinicians and jurisdictions in the United States maintain a heightened index of suspicion for mpox in patients who have recently been in DRC or to any country sharing a border with DRC ... with signs and symptoms consistent with mpox,” the agency stated in the alert.

Clinicians should be aware of illnesses with symptoms including a rash that may be located on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth, or near the genitals, as well as a fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, cough, congestion, and sore throat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.