BREAKING: WHO declares mpox outbreak in Africa an international emergency

The mounting mpox outbreak in Africa constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Wednesday (Aug. 14).

The declaration hinged on advice from an emergency committee that the WHO assembled to discuss an unprecedented surge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has now spilled into adjacent countries. Mpox cases were already rising in the DRC in 2023, but now they've skyrocketed — more than 14,000 cases have been reported so far in 2024, exceeding last year's total count.

"In the view of all members, it was unanimous that the current outbreak of mpox is an extraordinary event," Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a physician-scientist and the chair of the 15-member emergency committee, said during a virtual news conference on Wednesday. One big factor in the decision was that "we're having the highest number of cases ever reported in the DRC," he said.

Based on the available data, children in the DRC have been the "worst impacted" by the country's outbreak, Ogoina said. That seems to be the case in Burundi, as well, but not in Nigeria and South Africa, where so far young adults have been most impacted. That said, Health officials don't yet understand the full extent of the emergency in the DRC or elsewhere in Africa.

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"What we have in Africa is actually the tip of the iceberg," Ogoina said, citing major gaps in diagnostic testing. "We don't have the full picture of this burden of mpox."

Mpox poses a particularly high risk in Africa due to the continent's high burden of HIV infections, a percentage of which are undiagnosed or undertreated. People living with HIV, and especially those with advanced disease, face a higher risk of severe illness and death from mpox, Ogoina said.