By Oluwaseun Sonde
The United States has said that the decision of Saturday 23th July, World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is a call to action for the world community to stop the spread of this virus.
In a statement released from the White House on Sunday, stated that a coordinated, international response is essential to stop the spread of monkeypox, protect communities at greatest risk of contracting the disease, and combat the current outbreak.
The WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus on Saturday declared that the multi-country monkeypox (MPX) outbreak to be a global public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), following over 16,500 reported cases and 75 deaths from 75 countries globally this year.
The White House stated further that since the earliest days of the outbreak, the United States Government has deployed a robust and comprehensive strategy to combat monkeypox in the country.
"Including dramatically scaling the procurement, distribution, and production of vaccines, expanding access to testing and treatments, and communicating with communities most at risk of contracting the virus.
"But that is not enough. As the Department of Health and Human Services has said, we must step up our work to aggressively combat this virus and protect communities in the United States that have been affected by monkeypox".
Also, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) welcomed Saturday 23 July 2022 declaration of the World Health Organization (WHO) on monkeypox (MPX) outbreak to be a global public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
In a statement released by the African disease agency on Monday which stated that from the 16,500 reported cases from 75 countries, Africa is having 11 from African Union member, accounting for approximately 12% of all reported cases with the highest case fatality rate (CFR) globally.
It further said since the beginning of 2022, a total of 2,031 cases (250 confirmed; 1,781 suspected) and 75 deaths (CFR: 3.7%) of monkeypox have been reported in Africa from nine endemic and two non-endemic AU MS.
However, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 12,457 cases of MPX have been reported in Africa with at least 365 deaths (CFR 2.9%) as follows: for year 2020 – 7,376 MPX cases and 203 deaths (CFR 2.8%); in 2021 – 3,050 MPX cases with 87 deaths (CFR 2.9%); and in 2022 – 2,031 MPX cases with 75 deaths (CFR 3.1%).
For the last three years (2020-2022), the MPX outbreak in Africa continued to grow from one country to another with little international attention.
"To date, the critical tools required in outbreak preparedness and response including diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, have not yet been made readily available to AU Member States", Africa CDC said.
Recalled that the first human case of Monkeypox was identified in Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970. Since then, it has been reported as endemic in at least 10 African countries in West and Central Africa regions.
Although MPX is an endemic disease in Africa, the continent has no vaccines, while access to test kits is very limited. The inequity and delayed access to COVID-19 tools in Africa should not be repeated with MPX, which has been a public health emergency since 2020.
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