WHO Launches Global Mpox Strategy, Including Strategic Vaccinations

An undated colorized transmission electron micrograph of mpox virus particles (pink) found within an infected cell (yellow), cultured in the laboratory, captured at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Md. NIAID/Handout via Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a global strategy to halt the transmission of mpox, formerly called monkeypox. The plan, announced on Aug. 26, will entail a “strategic vaccination” campaign.

The U.N. health agency, which declared a public health emergency of international concern two weeks ago, said that the plan will last six months—September 2024 to February 2025—and will receive $135 million in funding.

“Strategic vaccination” efforts will target people at the highest risk such as “close contacts of recent cases and healthcare workers, to interrupt transmission chains,” the agency said.

The WHO plan will focus on “implementing comprehensive surveillance, prevention, readiness, and response strategies; advancing research and equitable access to medical countermeasures like diagnostic tests and vaccines; minimizing animal-to-human transmission; and empowering communities to actively participate in outbreak prevention and control,” according to a statement.

Officials say that a subvariant of the virus has caused global concern because it seems to spread more easily through routine close contact.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the Aug. 26 statement that the mpox outbreak, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “can be controlled and can be stopped.”

“Doing so requires a comprehensive and coordinated plan of action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers and manufacturers, and our Member States,” he said.

More Cases Confirmed Outside Africa

The Philippines has confirmed two more mpox virus infections of the milder Clade II variety, its health ministry said on Aug. 26, bringing the number of active cases to three.

“We continue to see local transmission of mpox Clade II here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular,” Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.

He added that newly confirmed cases were a 37-year-old male in Metro Manila who had a rash on his body and was brought to a government hospital and a 32-year-old male from the capital who had lesions on his skin.

The Philippines announced last week that it had detected a case of the mpox virus’s milder variant in a 33-year-old male who had no travel history outside the Philippines.

The Philippines has had 12 laboratory-confirmed cases since July 2022. The World Health Organization earlier this month declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighboring countries.

Since January 2023, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported more than 27,000 suspected mpox cases and more than 1,300 deaths.

The disease leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can be fatal. Children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are all at higher risk of complications.

Other countries outside the African continent that have confirmed mpox cases in recent days include Sweden and Thailand.

“We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I,” Swedish Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed said at a news conference at the time.

No Lockdowns

Earlier in August, a WHO official stressed that mpox would not cause lockdowns or closures or restrict other activity.

“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, it’s another COVID-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no,’” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said days after the WHO declaration was issued.

“Two years ago, we controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men.”

In an update around the same time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that mpox currently poses a low risk to the United States and that no cases of Clade I mpox have been found in the country.

Reuters contributed to this report.