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What to know about mpox after WHO declared it a global health emergency
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Fenit Nirappil, Annabelle Timsit
Published Aug 15, 2024 • 7 minute read
The World Health Organization has labeled a surge in cases of mpox in a number of African countries a public health emergency — shining a spotlight on the disease, which previously attracted international attention during a global outbreak in 2022.
The virus was first detected in humans more than 50 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been considered endemic there for decades. A new form of the virus, known as clade 1b, is now spreading rapidly in eastern parts of the country, as well as in neighboring countries that have not previously been affected.
Here’s what to know.
What is mpox?
Mpox is a zoonotic virus that causes flu-like symptoms and a rash with painful lesions. World health officials no longer use the term “monkeypox,” as it was previously known, because it is inaccurate (scientists now believe the virus originates in rodents) and is stigmatizing by associating a disease disproportionately affecting Black people with a slur used against them.
The WHO previously declared mpox an international health emergency in 2022 amid an outbreak that affected mostly gay and bisexual men across the globe, with nearly 100,000 cases and 208 deaths in 116 countries. Cases in that outbreak plunged after a campaign to deliver vaccines, but the virus has persisted in parts of Africa where the virus has been endemic and vaccines are not available.
This year, it was reported for the first time in some African countries including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — an “especially concerning” development that was “one of the main reasons” for the WHO’s Wednesday decision to again declare mpox a public health emergency of international concern.
What is the mortality rate for mpox?
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), mortality rates of mpox vary across outbreaks. Children and people with vulnerable immune systems, including those with untreated HIV, are most at risk of severe disease and symptoms.
So far this year, more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths have been reported in Congo – exceeding last year’s total, the WHO said.
Experts say the clade 1 virus, which has long been endemic in Congo, and its offshoot clade 1b, which emerged last year, typically cause more-severe illness than the clade 2 viruses that drove the 2022 global outbreak.
The death rate is about 5.5% in the Congo province where clade 1 predominates, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death rate for clade 1b outbreaks have been lower – fewer than 1 percent of infected people.
Experts caution against comparing fatality rates because the differences could be explained by who is becoming infected rather than the type of virus. The higher death rate for clade 1 could be explained by the outbreak disproportionately striking vulnerable children in an area with a weak health-care system.
Can mpox be cured?
Most mpox infections go away on their own without the need for specific treatment, with symptoms typically lasting two to four weeks, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Health experts recommend treating a patient’s symptoms to relieve pain and prevent any complications.
Some treatments developed to treat smallpox — a closely related virus — are thought to be effective at treating mpox infections. One such treatment, the antiviral tecovirimat, widely known as TPOXX, is available in some cases as a treatment to hasten recovery. Its efficacy is still being studied, with a clinical trial underway. The CDC discourages widespread distribution of TPOXX, instead calling for the prioritization of people considered at high risk, including those who are severely immunocompromised, pregnant or children.
Is there an mpox vaccine?
Public health authorities recommend that people who are at high risk — which, depending on the country, can include health workers, sex workers and men who have sex with men — get vaccinated to prevent mpox infection. In the United States, gay and bisexual men and transgender people are considered at risk if within the last six months they have had multiple sexual partners, a sexually transmitted infection, or sex in commercial venues.
Two doses of the vaccine, known as JYNNEOS and developed to prevent smallpox, “work to prevent mpox in most people” and may help protect people from “severe infection, hospitalization, and death,” according to the CDC. But it does not provide full protection, and experts are studying why some vaccinated people have gotten mpox and how long immunity against infection lasts. Officials say the vaccine still appears to provide protection against severe disease, similar to coronavirus vaccines.
Another vaccine, LC16m8, has been approved in Japan and limited research shows it generates antibody response to mpox without serious safety concerns.
The smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 has been used in the past for mpox, but officials generally avoid it, now that there are other options, because of side effects.
The vaccines are not widely available in African countries where the virus is endemic. For people at higher risk in Congo, officials are hoping to distribute vaccines later this year, pending regulatory approval.
What causes mpox?
The virus spreads through exposure to infected animals, contact with bodily fluids and skin-to-skin contact, but not casual or brief touch. Contact during sex emerged as the most effective way for the virus to spread swiftly during the 2022 outbreak, and officials are concerned that the version of the virus now appearing for the first time in some countries is being transmitted the same way, including among heterosexuals, with the potential to seed larger outbreaks.
While sexual transmission raises concerns about the virus crossing borders, mpox also appears to be spreading inside Congolese households and among children through other forms of contact, such as through shared bedding and clothing or parents holding children.
The virus could also transmit through respiratory droplets when people have close face-to-face contact. Public health officials stress that this form of transmission is uncommon and much more difficult than the airborne transmission of pathogens such as the coronavirus that can hang in the air and spread through currents.
Some people can spread mpox before they develop symptoms, and the risk continues until their rash heals and a fresh layer of skin has formed, according to the CDC.
What are the symptoms of mpox?
Once someone is infected, symptoms tend to appear six to 13 days later, although they can sometimes take up to 21 days to appear, according to the ECDC. Symptoms are similar to those of a flu and include fever, headache, back pain and muscle aches — but mpox infections can also cause a distinctive rash on various parts of the body.
“Within three days of experiencing the initial symptoms, the rash may spread quickly and eventually turns into small fluid-filled sacs known as vesicles. If the rash spreads throughout the body, it can also affect the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet,” the ECDC says.
In cases of sexual contact, lesions have appeared around the genitals and anus and have caused intense pain in going to the bathroom.
Is mpox a sexually transmitted infection?
While the sexual spread of mpox has prompted emergency declarations, public health officials have been hesitant to call it a sexually transmitted infection such as syphilis or HIV. This is because the virus spreads in other ways (including in Congolese children), but some critics say this approach is splitting hairs and detracts from effectively responding.
During the 2022 outbreak, Leandro Mena, director of the STD Prevention Division of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, and Jonathan Mermin, director of the center, said that “although transmission can, and has, occurred through nonsexual contact, many of the health communications, facilities, and programs” used in cases of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, “are applicable for monkeypox prevention and treatment.”
There was some disagreement among experts in previous outbreaks about whether mpox should be labeled as an STD. In April 2023, six experts from institutions including the University of Southern California and Brigham and Women’s Hospital wrote in a position statement published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that “labeling it as such will help focus public health interventions, such as vaccinations, testing, and treatment, as well as facilitate focused awareness and education programs toward behavioral modifications to reduce exposures.”
How do you avoid getting mpox?
Public health officials advise avoid coming into close contact with infected wild animals, people with mpox, and contaminated materials such as sheets that a person with mpox has slept in. Avoid touching those materials and wash your hands often.
During the height of the 2022 outbreak, the CDC advised sexually active Americans to limit their number of sexual partners until they could be vaccinated.
The CDC also recommends that people who are at risk for mpox get vaccinated, “avoid close, skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that looks like mpox and animals that carry the monkeypox virus,” and take steps “to lower your risk of mpox during sex or at a social gathering.”
In Congo, experts say crowded living conditions in displacement camps and the lack of personal protective equipment and disinfectants in health-care facilities have made it difficult to reduce the risk of exposure to mpox.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Fenit Nirappil, Annabelle Timsit
Published Aug 15, 2024 • 7 minute read
The World Health Organization has labeled a surge in cases of mpox in a number of African countries a public health emergency — shining a spotlight on the disease, which previously attracted international attention during a global outbreak in 2022.
The virus was first detected in humans more than 50 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been considered endemic there for decades. A new form of the virus, known as clade 1b, is now spreading rapidly in eastern parts of the country, as well as in neighboring countries that have not previously been affected.
Here’s what to know.
What is mpox?
Mpox is a zoonotic virus that causes flu-like symptoms and a rash with painful lesions. World health officials no longer use the term “monkeypox,” as it was previously known, because it is inaccurate (scientists now believe the virus originates in rodents) and is stigmatizing by associating a disease disproportionately affecting Black people with a slur used against them.
The WHO previously declared mpox an international health emergency in 2022 amid an outbreak that affected mostly gay and bisexual men across the globe, with nearly 100,000 cases and 208 deaths in 116 countries. Cases in that outbreak plunged after a campaign to deliver vaccines, but the virus has persisted in parts of Africa where the virus has been endemic and vaccines are not available.
This year, it was reported for the first time in some African countries including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — an “especially concerning” development that was “one of the main reasons” for the WHO’s Wednesday decision to again declare mpox a public health emergency of international concern.
What is the mortality rate for mpox?
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), mortality rates of mpox vary across outbreaks. Children and people with vulnerable immune systems, including those with untreated HIV, are most at risk of severe disease and symptoms.
So far this year, more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths have been reported in Congo – exceeding last year’s total, the WHO said.
Experts say the clade 1 virus, which has long been endemic in Congo, and its offshoot clade 1b, which emerged last year, typically cause more-severe illness than the clade 2 viruses that drove the 2022 global outbreak.
The death rate is about 5.5% in the Congo province where clade 1 predominates, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death rate for clade 1b outbreaks have been lower – fewer than 1 percent of infected people.
Experts caution against comparing fatality rates because the differences could be explained by who is becoming infected rather than the type of virus. The higher death rate for clade 1 could be explained by the outbreak disproportionately striking vulnerable children in an area with a weak health-care system.
Can mpox be cured?
Most mpox infections go away on their own without the need for specific treatment, with symptoms typically lasting two to four weeks, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Health experts recommend treating a patient’s symptoms to relieve pain and prevent any complications.
Some treatments developed to treat smallpox — a closely related virus — are thought to be effective at treating mpox infections. One such treatment, the antiviral tecovirimat, widely known as TPOXX, is available in some cases as a treatment to hasten recovery. Its efficacy is still being studied, with a clinical trial underway. The CDC discourages widespread distribution of TPOXX, instead calling for the prioritization of people considered at high risk, including those who are severely immunocompromised, pregnant or children.
Is there an mpox vaccine?
Public health authorities recommend that people who are at high risk — which, depending on the country, can include health workers, sex workers and men who have sex with men — get vaccinated to prevent mpox infection. In the United States, gay and bisexual men and transgender people are considered at risk if within the last six months they have had multiple sexual partners, a sexually transmitted infection, or sex in commercial venues.
Two doses of the vaccine, known as JYNNEOS and developed to prevent smallpox, “work to prevent mpox in most people” and may help protect people from “severe infection, hospitalization, and death,” according to the CDC. But it does not provide full protection, and experts are studying why some vaccinated people have gotten mpox and how long immunity against infection lasts. Officials say the vaccine still appears to provide protection against severe disease, similar to coronavirus vaccines.
Another vaccine, LC16m8, has been approved in Japan and limited research shows it generates antibody response to mpox without serious safety concerns.
The smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 has been used in the past for mpox, but officials generally avoid it, now that there are other options, because of side effects.
The vaccines are not widely available in African countries where the virus is endemic. For people at higher risk in Congo, officials are hoping to distribute vaccines later this year, pending regulatory approval.
What causes mpox?
The virus spreads through exposure to infected animals, contact with bodily fluids and skin-to-skin contact, but not casual or brief touch. Contact during sex emerged as the most effective way for the virus to spread swiftly during the 2022 outbreak, and officials are concerned that the version of the virus now appearing for the first time in some countries is being transmitted the same way, including among heterosexuals, with the potential to seed larger outbreaks.
While sexual transmission raises concerns about the virus crossing borders, mpox also appears to be spreading inside Congolese households and among children through other forms of contact, such as through shared bedding and clothing or parents holding children.
The virus could also transmit through respiratory droplets when people have close face-to-face contact. Public health officials stress that this form of transmission is uncommon and much more difficult than the airborne transmission of pathogens such as the coronavirus that can hang in the air and spread through currents.
Some people can spread mpox before they develop symptoms, and the risk continues until their rash heals and a fresh layer of skin has formed, according to the CDC.
What are the symptoms of mpox?
Once someone is infected, symptoms tend to appear six to 13 days later, although they can sometimes take up to 21 days to appear, according to the ECDC. Symptoms are similar to those of a flu and include fever, headache, back pain and muscle aches — but mpox infections can also cause a distinctive rash on various parts of the body.
“Within three days of experiencing the initial symptoms, the rash may spread quickly and eventually turns into small fluid-filled sacs known as vesicles. If the rash spreads throughout the body, it can also affect the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet,” the ECDC says.
In cases of sexual contact, lesions have appeared around the genitals and anus and have caused intense pain in going to the bathroom.
Is mpox a sexually transmitted infection?
While the sexual spread of mpox has prompted emergency declarations, public health officials have been hesitant to call it a sexually transmitted infection such as syphilis or HIV. This is because the virus spreads in other ways (including in Congolese children), but some critics say this approach is splitting hairs and detracts from effectively responding.
During the 2022 outbreak, Leandro Mena, director of the STD Prevention Division of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, and Jonathan Mermin, director of the center, said that “although transmission can, and has, occurred through nonsexual contact, many of the health communications, facilities, and programs” used in cases of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, “are applicable for monkeypox prevention and treatment.”
There was some disagreement among experts in previous outbreaks about whether mpox should be labeled as an STD. In April 2023, six experts from institutions including the University of Southern California and Brigham and Women’s Hospital wrote in a position statement published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that “labeling it as such will help focus public health interventions, such as vaccinations, testing, and treatment, as well as facilitate focused awareness and education programs toward behavioral modifications to reduce exposures.”
How do you avoid getting mpox?
Public health officials advise avoid coming into close contact with infected wild animals, people with mpox, and contaminated materials such as sheets that a person with mpox has slept in. Avoid touching those materials and wash your hands often.
During the height of the 2022 outbreak, the CDC advised sexually active Americans to limit their number of sexual partners until they could be vaccinated.
The CDC also recommends that people who are at risk for mpox get vaccinated, “avoid close, skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that looks like mpox and animals that carry the monkeypox virus,” and take steps “to lower your risk of mpox during sex or at a social gathering.”
In Congo, experts say crowded living conditions in displacement camps and the lack of personal protective equipment and disinfectants in health-care facilities have made it difficult to reduce the risk of exposure to mpox.
What to know about mpox after WHO declared it a global health emergency
The World Health Organization has labeled a surge in cases of mpox in a number of African countries a public health emergency.
Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral into global health emergency
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ruth Alonga And Chinedu Asadu
Published Aug 17, 2024 • 5 minute read
GOMA, Congo — Sarah Bagheni had a headache, fever, and itchy and unusual skin lesions for days, but she had no inkling that her symptoms might have been caused by mpox and that she might be another case in a growing global health emergency.
She also has no idea where to go to get medical help.
She and her husband live in the Bulengo displacement camp in eastern Congo, a region that is effectively ground zero for a series of mpox outbreaks in Africa.
This year’s alarming rise in cases, including a new form of the virus identified by scientists in eastern Congo, led the World Health Organization to declare it a global health emergency on Wednesday. It said the new variant could spread beyond the five African countries where it had already been detected — a timely warning that came a day before Sweden reported its first case of the new strain.
In the vast central African nation of Congo, which has had more than 96% of the world’s roughly 17,000 recorded cases of mpox this year — and some 500 deaths from the disease — many of the most vulnerable seem unaware of its existence or the threat that it poses.
“We know nothing about this,” Bagheni’s husband, Habumuremyiza Hire, said Thursday about mpox. “I watch her condition helplessly because I don’t know what to do. We continue to share the same room.”
Millions are thought to be out of reach of medical help or advice in the conflict-torn east, where dozens of rebel groups have been fighting Congolese army forces for years over mineral-rich areas, causing a huge displacement crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people like Bagheni and her husband have been forced into overcrowded refugee camps around Goma, while more have taken refuge in the city.
Conditions in the camps are dire and medical facilities are almost nonexistent.
Mahoro Faustin, who runs the Bulengo camp, said that about three months ago, administrators first started noticing people in the camp exhibiting fever, body aches and chills — symptoms that could signal malaria, measles or mpox.
There is no way of knowing how many mpox cases there might be in Bulengo because of a lack of testing, he said. There haven’t been any recent health campaigns to educate the tens of thousands of people in the camp about mpox, and Faustin said he’s worried about how many people might be undiagnosed.
“Just look at the overcrowding here,” he said, pointing to a sea of ramshackle tents. “If nothing is done, we will all be infected here, or maybe we are already all infected.”
Around 70% of the new mpox cases in the Goma area in the last two months that were registered at a treatment center run by Medair were from displacement camps, said Dr. Pierre Olivier Ngadjole, the international aid group’s health advisor in Congo. The youngest of those cases was a month-old baby and the oldest a 90-year-old, he said.
In severe cases of mpox, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, arms, chest and genitals. While the disease originated in animals, the virus has in recent years been spreading between people via close physical contact, including sex.
Bagheni’s best hope of getting a diagnosis for her lesions is a government hospital that’s a two-hour drive away. That’s likely out of the question, given that she already struggles with mobility having previously had both her legs amputated.
Seven million people are internally displaced in Congo, with more than 5.5 million of them in the country’s east, according the U.N. refugee agency. Congo has the largest displacement camp population in Africa, and one of the largest in the world.
The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has almost every possible complication when it comes to stopping an mpox outbreak, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Duke University’s Global Health Institute.
That includes war, illicit mining industries that attract sex workers, transient populations near border regions, and entrenched poverty. He also said the global community missed multiple warning signs.
“We’re paying attention to it now, but mpox has been spreading since 2017 in Congo and Nigeria,” Beyrer said, adding that experts have long been calling for vaccines to be shared with Africa, but to little effect. He said the WHO’s emergency declaration was “late in coming,” with more than a dozen countries already affected.
Beyrer said that unlike COVID-19 or HIV, there’s a good vaccine and good treatments and diagnostics for mpox, but “the access issues are worse than ever” in places like eastern Congo.
In 2022, there were outbreaks in more than 70 countries around the world, including the United States, which led the WHO to also declare an emergency that lasted until mid-2023. It was largely shut down in wealthy countries within months through the use of vaccines and treatments, but few doses have been made available in Africa.
The new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox was first detected this year in a mining town in eastern Congo, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Goma. It’s unclear how much the new strain is to blame, but Congo is now enduring its worst outbreak yet and at least 13 African countries have recorded cases, four of them for the first time.
The outbreaks in those four countries — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — have been linked to Congo’s, and Doctors Without Borders said Friday that Congo’s surge “threatens a major spread of the disease” to other countries.
Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious disease expert who chairs the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency committee, said the Congo outbreak has a particularly concerning change, in that it’s disproportionately affecting young people. Children under 15 account for 70% of cases and 85% of all deaths in the country, the Africa CDC reported.
Unlike the 2022 global outbreak, which predominantly affected gay and bisexual men, mpox now appears to be spreading in heterosexual populations.
All of Congo’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases, according to the state-run news agency. But Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said Thursday that the country doesn’t have a single vaccine dose yet and he pleaded for “vigilance in all directions from all Congolese.”
Dr. Rachel Maguru, who heads the multi-epidemic center at Goma’s North Kivu provincial hospital, said they also don’t have drugs or any established treatments for mpox and are relying on other experts such as dermatologists to help where they can. A larger outbreak around the city and its numerous displacement camps already overburdened with an influx of people would be “terrible,” she said.
She also noted a pivotal problem: poor and displaced people have other priorities, like earning enough money to eat and survive. Aid agencies and stretched local authorities are already wrestling with providing food, shelter and basic health care to the millions displaced, while also dealing with outbreaks of other diseases like cholera.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ruth Alonga And Chinedu Asadu
Published Aug 17, 2024 • 5 minute read
GOMA, Congo — Sarah Bagheni had a headache, fever, and itchy and unusual skin lesions for days, but she had no inkling that her symptoms might have been caused by mpox and that she might be another case in a growing global health emergency.
She also has no idea where to go to get medical help.
She and her husband live in the Bulengo displacement camp in eastern Congo, a region that is effectively ground zero for a series of mpox outbreaks in Africa.
This year’s alarming rise in cases, including a new form of the virus identified by scientists in eastern Congo, led the World Health Organization to declare it a global health emergency on Wednesday. It said the new variant could spread beyond the five African countries where it had already been detected — a timely warning that came a day before Sweden reported its first case of the new strain.
In the vast central African nation of Congo, which has had more than 96% of the world’s roughly 17,000 recorded cases of mpox this year — and some 500 deaths from the disease — many of the most vulnerable seem unaware of its existence or the threat that it poses.
“We know nothing about this,” Bagheni’s husband, Habumuremyiza Hire, said Thursday about mpox. “I watch her condition helplessly because I don’t know what to do. We continue to share the same room.”
Millions are thought to be out of reach of medical help or advice in the conflict-torn east, where dozens of rebel groups have been fighting Congolese army forces for years over mineral-rich areas, causing a huge displacement crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people like Bagheni and her husband have been forced into overcrowded refugee camps around Goma, while more have taken refuge in the city.
Conditions in the camps are dire and medical facilities are almost nonexistent.
Mahoro Faustin, who runs the Bulengo camp, said that about three months ago, administrators first started noticing people in the camp exhibiting fever, body aches and chills — symptoms that could signal malaria, measles or mpox.
There is no way of knowing how many mpox cases there might be in Bulengo because of a lack of testing, he said. There haven’t been any recent health campaigns to educate the tens of thousands of people in the camp about mpox, and Faustin said he’s worried about how many people might be undiagnosed.
“Just look at the overcrowding here,” he said, pointing to a sea of ramshackle tents. “If nothing is done, we will all be infected here, or maybe we are already all infected.”
Around 70% of the new mpox cases in the Goma area in the last two months that were registered at a treatment center run by Medair were from displacement camps, said Dr. Pierre Olivier Ngadjole, the international aid group’s health advisor in Congo. The youngest of those cases was a month-old baby and the oldest a 90-year-old, he said.
In severe cases of mpox, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, arms, chest and genitals. While the disease originated in animals, the virus has in recent years been spreading between people via close physical contact, including sex.
Bagheni’s best hope of getting a diagnosis for her lesions is a government hospital that’s a two-hour drive away. That’s likely out of the question, given that she already struggles with mobility having previously had both her legs amputated.
Seven million people are internally displaced in Congo, with more than 5.5 million of them in the country’s east, according the U.N. refugee agency. Congo has the largest displacement camp population in Africa, and one of the largest in the world.
The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has almost every possible complication when it comes to stopping an mpox outbreak, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Duke University’s Global Health Institute.
That includes war, illicit mining industries that attract sex workers, transient populations near border regions, and entrenched poverty. He also said the global community missed multiple warning signs.
“We’re paying attention to it now, but mpox has been spreading since 2017 in Congo and Nigeria,” Beyrer said, adding that experts have long been calling for vaccines to be shared with Africa, but to little effect. He said the WHO’s emergency declaration was “late in coming,” with more than a dozen countries already affected.
Beyrer said that unlike COVID-19 or HIV, there’s a good vaccine and good treatments and diagnostics for mpox, but “the access issues are worse than ever” in places like eastern Congo.
In 2022, there were outbreaks in more than 70 countries around the world, including the United States, which led the WHO to also declare an emergency that lasted until mid-2023. It was largely shut down in wealthy countries within months through the use of vaccines and treatments, but few doses have been made available in Africa.
The new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox was first detected this year in a mining town in eastern Congo, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Goma. It’s unclear how much the new strain is to blame, but Congo is now enduring its worst outbreak yet and at least 13 African countries have recorded cases, four of them for the first time.
The outbreaks in those four countries — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — have been linked to Congo’s, and Doctors Without Borders said Friday that Congo’s surge “threatens a major spread of the disease” to other countries.
Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious disease expert who chairs the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency committee, said the Congo outbreak has a particularly concerning change, in that it’s disproportionately affecting young people. Children under 15 account for 70% of cases and 85% of all deaths in the country, the Africa CDC reported.
Unlike the 2022 global outbreak, which predominantly affected gay and bisexual men, mpox now appears to be spreading in heterosexual populations.
All of Congo’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases, according to the state-run news agency. But Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said Thursday that the country doesn’t have a single vaccine dose yet and he pleaded for “vigilance in all directions from all Congolese.”
Dr. Rachel Maguru, who heads the multi-epidemic center at Goma’s North Kivu provincial hospital, said they also don’t have drugs or any established treatments for mpox and are relying on other experts such as dermatologists to help where they can. A larger outbreak around the city and its numerous displacement camps already overburdened with an influx of people would be “terrible,” she said.
She also noted a pivotal problem: poor and displaced people have other priorities, like earning enough money to eat and survive. Aid agencies and stretched local authorities are already wrestling with providing food, shelter and basic health care to the millions displaced, while also dealing with outbreaks of other diseases like cholera.
Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral into global health emergency
In the vast central African nation of Congo, which has had more than 96% of the world's roughly 17,000 recorded cases of mpox this year
Joly announces $1M to help stem mpox in Africa
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Aug 19, 2024 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 2 minute read
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada will provide $1 million to help stem mpox in Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with the continent.
The funding will go to the World Health Organization as it tries to contain the spread of the virus formerly known as monkeypox, which has been spreading rapidly across Africa.
Joly is visiting a vaccination co-ordination centre in Ivory Coast, ahead of a visit to South Africa for two days starting Wednesday.
The visit to the West African nation is aimed at exploring shared counterterrorism priorities and affirming Canada’s ties with both French-speaking countries.
Joly’s office says she will also discuss economic partnership between Canada and South Africa and mark 30 years since the end of apartheid.
The trip comes days after the Liberals launched consultations for what they are now calling their approach to Africa, which includes where to best station diplomats and what issues to focus on.
The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Canada to donate some of its stockpile of mpox vaccines, though Ottawa has only said it’s looking at how it can help.
The newly announced funding will go toward improving detection and reporting systems for mpox, such as boosting laboratory testing and speeding up research, according to Joly’s office.
The funding builds on a $2-million contribution Canada has made for the WHO to respond to health emergencies worldwide.
South Africa previously called out countries like Canada for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines that were sorely needed in Africa, and for not supporting efforts to lift patents on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines that were rarely allowed to be manufactured in African countries.
“Canada stands with our African and multilateral partners in their efforts to accelerate the response to the current mpox outbreak,” Joly said in a statement. “We are prepared to assist with the global response and do our part to stop the spread of the virus.”
The Liberals have been assembling what they first called an Africa strategy for nearly three years, but they downgraded the project last year to call it a framework. In April, a senior bureaucrat said there was no longer a noun being used to describe the plan, which as of this week Ottawa now calls its “approach” to the continent.
Experts in public administration have previously pointed out that strategies are multi-year plans that often have funding allocations, while frameworks are a generic set of principles.
In 2022, senators on the foreign-affairs committee warned that Canada was falling behind both peers and adversaries in forming economic ties on the continent.
Africa is bucking a global trend of demographic decline, with a booming young population and a series of trade deals and infrastructure projects that economists expect will lead to economic booms.
Canada has already pledged some sort of plan for economic co-operation with Africa, and finished a consultation last summer. It’s unknown whether this project will be folded into the broader approach Joly is leading.
Aid experts have called on Canada to better brand the projects it funds on the continent and to have a more coherent approach to both development and trade.
Groups like the One Campaign and CUSO International have testified that Canada is losing relevance through continued disengagement, and thus ceding ground to Russia and China.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Aug 19, 2024 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 2 minute read
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada will provide $1 million to help stem mpox in Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with the continent.
The funding will go to the World Health Organization as it tries to contain the spread of the virus formerly known as monkeypox, which has been spreading rapidly across Africa.
Joly is visiting a vaccination co-ordination centre in Ivory Coast, ahead of a visit to South Africa for two days starting Wednesday.
The visit to the West African nation is aimed at exploring shared counterterrorism priorities and affirming Canada’s ties with both French-speaking countries.
Joly’s office says she will also discuss economic partnership between Canada and South Africa and mark 30 years since the end of apartheid.
The trip comes days after the Liberals launched consultations for what they are now calling their approach to Africa, which includes where to best station diplomats and what issues to focus on.
The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Canada to donate some of its stockpile of mpox vaccines, though Ottawa has only said it’s looking at how it can help.
The newly announced funding will go toward improving detection and reporting systems for mpox, such as boosting laboratory testing and speeding up research, according to Joly’s office.
The funding builds on a $2-million contribution Canada has made for the WHO to respond to health emergencies worldwide.
South Africa previously called out countries like Canada for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines that were sorely needed in Africa, and for not supporting efforts to lift patents on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines that were rarely allowed to be manufactured in African countries.
“Canada stands with our African and multilateral partners in their efforts to accelerate the response to the current mpox outbreak,” Joly said in a statement. “We are prepared to assist with the global response and do our part to stop the spread of the virus.”
The Liberals have been assembling what they first called an Africa strategy for nearly three years, but they downgraded the project last year to call it a framework. In April, a senior bureaucrat said there was no longer a noun being used to describe the plan, which as of this week Ottawa now calls its “approach” to the continent.
Experts in public administration have previously pointed out that strategies are multi-year plans that often have funding allocations, while frameworks are a generic set of principles.
In 2022, senators on the foreign-affairs committee warned that Canada was falling behind both peers and adversaries in forming economic ties on the continent.
Africa is bucking a global trend of demographic decline, with a booming young population and a series of trade deals and infrastructure projects that economists expect will lead to economic booms.
Canada has already pledged some sort of plan for economic co-operation with Africa, and finished a consultation last summer. It’s unknown whether this project will be folded into the broader approach Joly is leading.
Aid experts have called on Canada to better brand the projects it funds on the continent and to have a more coherent approach to both development and trade.
Groups like the One Campaign and CUSO International have testified that Canada is losing relevance through continued disengagement, and thus ceding ground to Russia and China.
Joly announces $1M to help stem mpox in Africa
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is headed to Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with continent
Where is the cure that was developed in a matter of weeks with a 100% effectiveness?Joly announces $1M to help stem mpox in Africa
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Aug 19, 2024 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 2 minute read
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada will provide $1 million to help stem mpox in Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with the continent.
The funding will go to the World Health Organization as it tries to contain the spread of the virus formerly known as monkeypox, which has been spreading rapidly across Africa.
Joly is visiting a vaccination co-ordination centre in Ivory Coast, ahead of a visit to South Africa for two days starting Wednesday.
The visit to the West African nation is aimed at exploring shared counterterrorism priorities and affirming Canada’s ties with both French-speaking countries.
Joly’s office says she will also discuss economic partnership between Canada and South Africa and mark 30 years since the end of apartheid.
The trip comes days after the Liberals launched consultations for what they are now calling their approach to Africa, which includes where to best station diplomats and what issues to focus on.
The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Canada to donate some of its stockpile of mpox vaccines, though Ottawa has only said it’s looking at how it can help.
The newly announced funding will go toward improving detection and reporting systems for mpox, such as boosting laboratory testing and speeding up research, according to Joly’s office.
The funding builds on a $2-million contribution Canada has made for the WHO to respond to health emergencies worldwide.
South Africa previously called out countries like Canada for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines that were sorely needed in Africa, and for not supporting efforts to lift patents on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines that were rarely allowed to be manufactured in African countries.
“Canada stands with our African and multilateral partners in their efforts to accelerate the response to the current mpox outbreak,” Joly said in a statement. “We are prepared to assist with the global response and do our part to stop the spread of the virus.”
The Liberals have been assembling what they first called an Africa strategy for nearly three years, but they downgraded the project last year to call it a framework. In April, a senior bureaucrat said there was no longer a noun being used to describe the plan, which as of this week Ottawa now calls its “approach” to the continent.
Experts in public administration have previously pointed out that strategies are multi-year plans that often have funding allocations, while frameworks are a generic set of principles.
In 2022, senators on the foreign-affairs committee warned that Canada was falling behind both peers and adversaries in forming economic ties on the continent.
Africa is bucking a global trend of demographic decline, with a booming young population and a series of trade deals and infrastructure projects that economists expect will lead to economic booms.
Canada has already pledged some sort of plan for economic co-operation with Africa, and finished a consultation last summer. It’s unknown whether this project will be folded into the broader approach Joly is leading.
Aid experts have called on Canada to better brand the projects it funds on the continent and to have a more coherent approach to both development and trade.
Groups like the One Campaign and CUSO International have testified that Canada is losing relevance through continued disengagement, and thus ceding ground to Russia and China.
Joly announces $1M to help stem mpox in Africa
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is headed to Africa as her government assembles a long-delayed plan on how to engage with continent
Many people at risk never got their 2nd mpox vaccine dose, public health agencies say
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Nicole Ireland
Published Sep 06, 2024 • 3 minute read
Public health agencies are encouraging people who received a first dose of mpox vaccine over the last two years to make sure they get a second dose.
Many people at risk for mpox exposure got vaccinated in Canada beginning in spring 2022, when a global outbreak of the virus was declared, Canada’s chief public health officer said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
But a lot of them never got a second dose, which is recommended at least 28 days after the first shot.
“Please get that second dose in order to have the strongest immunity,” said Dr. Theresa Tam.
The number of mpox cases dropped in 2023 but appear to be on the rise again in parts of Canada. As of Aug. 24, there have been 166 confirmed cases in Ontario this year, compared to only 33 cases last year, according to data posted online by Public Health Ontario.
Only 36 per cent of people who got one dose of the mpox vaccine, Imvamune, in Ontario got a second dose, the agency said.
The majority of the province’s cases — 83 per cent — have been in Toronto this year, it said.
“Toronto Public Health (TPH) continues to provide access to mpox vaccination through TPH clinics and community health partner clinics,” Dr. Rita Shahin, associate medical officer of health for the city of Toronto, said in an emailed statement.
“Eligible residents are encouraged to start or complete the two-dose vaccination series for the best protection,” Shahin said.
People eligible for vaccination include men who have sex with men and have more than one partner; men who have sex with men who have gone to venues for sexual contact; people who work in those venues; and sex workers, regardless of gender.
So far, Canada has only seen one type of mpox, known as clade II, which is spread primarily through close contact, including sexual contact.
People can also get the virus when handling personal items used by an infected person, including towels, clothing and bedding or when sharing utensils, toothbrushes, razors, needles or sex toys, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website.
Montreal, which had many cases in 2022, doesn’t appear to be seeing the same rise as Toronto. Nine mpox cases have been confirmed so far in 2024, according to an emailed statement from the city’s public health authority.
As of Aug. 14, 18,349 people in Montreal had received one dose of Imvamune, but only about half of them — 9,645 people — had received a second dose, the statement said.
The World Health Organization declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern on Aug. 14, partly driven by the increase of another type of mpox, known as clade I, in Congo and its spread outside that country.
No cases of clade I mpox have been detected in Canada, Tam said.
One likely reason some people did not get a second dose is that the shots weren’t promoted when vaccinations began in the spring of 2022, said Dr. Darrell Tan, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“We didn’t know how big of an epidemic we were going to be facing. (And) the amount of vaccine that’s available in the Canadian stockpile really is a national secret because the initial purpose of stockpiling the vaccine was actually for bioterrorism preparedness rather than for traditional public health purposes,” Tan said in an interview.
“It was only some weeks to months later, (varying) by jurisdiction, that the kind of door opened to folks getting their second dose, and that’s already going to be after the recommended 28-day window between doses for a lot of folks,” he said.
In Toronto, for example, the first mpox vaccination clinic was on June 12, 2022, but the Ontario government didn’t provide second doses until that October, a spokesperson for Toronto Public Health said in an email.
Tan said that in addition to providing second doses of the mpox vaccine to at-risk groups here in Canada, it’s critical to make the vaccine available in Congo and other African countries that are hardest hit.
“If we prevent ongoing transmission of something in a different location … not only is it the right thing to do morally, ethically, and from a public health perspective for the folks that could get that protection immediately, but there’s a downstream impact (in Canada),” he said.
“The passage (of the virus) becomes less likely to make it over to our locations.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Nicole Ireland
Published Sep 06, 2024 • 3 minute read
Public health agencies are encouraging people who received a first dose of mpox vaccine over the last two years to make sure they get a second dose.
Many people at risk for mpox exposure got vaccinated in Canada beginning in spring 2022, when a global outbreak of the virus was declared, Canada’s chief public health officer said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
But a lot of them never got a second dose, which is recommended at least 28 days after the first shot.
“Please get that second dose in order to have the strongest immunity,” said Dr. Theresa Tam.
The number of mpox cases dropped in 2023 but appear to be on the rise again in parts of Canada. As of Aug. 24, there have been 166 confirmed cases in Ontario this year, compared to only 33 cases last year, according to data posted online by Public Health Ontario.
Only 36 per cent of people who got one dose of the mpox vaccine, Imvamune, in Ontario got a second dose, the agency said.
The majority of the province’s cases — 83 per cent — have been in Toronto this year, it said.
“Toronto Public Health (TPH) continues to provide access to mpox vaccination through TPH clinics and community health partner clinics,” Dr. Rita Shahin, associate medical officer of health for the city of Toronto, said in an emailed statement.
“Eligible residents are encouraged to start or complete the two-dose vaccination series for the best protection,” Shahin said.
People eligible for vaccination include men who have sex with men and have more than one partner; men who have sex with men who have gone to venues for sexual contact; people who work in those venues; and sex workers, regardless of gender.
So far, Canada has only seen one type of mpox, known as clade II, which is spread primarily through close contact, including sexual contact.
People can also get the virus when handling personal items used by an infected person, including towels, clothing and bedding or when sharing utensils, toothbrushes, razors, needles or sex toys, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website.
Montreal, which had many cases in 2022, doesn’t appear to be seeing the same rise as Toronto. Nine mpox cases have been confirmed so far in 2024, according to an emailed statement from the city’s public health authority.
As of Aug. 14, 18,349 people in Montreal had received one dose of Imvamune, but only about half of them — 9,645 people — had received a second dose, the statement said.
The World Health Organization declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern on Aug. 14, partly driven by the increase of another type of mpox, known as clade I, in Congo and its spread outside that country.
No cases of clade I mpox have been detected in Canada, Tam said.
One likely reason some people did not get a second dose is that the shots weren’t promoted when vaccinations began in the spring of 2022, said Dr. Darrell Tan, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“We didn’t know how big of an epidemic we were going to be facing. (And) the amount of vaccine that’s available in the Canadian stockpile really is a national secret because the initial purpose of stockpiling the vaccine was actually for bioterrorism preparedness rather than for traditional public health purposes,” Tan said in an interview.
“It was only some weeks to months later, (varying) by jurisdiction, that the kind of door opened to folks getting their second dose, and that’s already going to be after the recommended 28-day window between doses for a lot of folks,” he said.
In Toronto, for example, the first mpox vaccination clinic was on June 12, 2022, but the Ontario government didn’t provide second doses until that October, a spokesperson for Toronto Public Health said in an email.
Tan said that in addition to providing second doses of the mpox vaccine to at-risk groups here in Canada, it’s critical to make the vaccine available in Congo and other African countries that are hardest hit.
“If we prevent ongoing transmission of something in a different location … not only is it the right thing to do morally, ethically, and from a public health perspective for the folks that could get that protection immediately, but there’s a downstream impact (in Canada),” he said.
“The passage (of the virus) becomes less likely to make it over to our locations.”
Many people at risk never got their 2nd mpox vaccine dose, public health agencies say
Public health agencies are encouraging people who received a first dose of mpox vaccine to make sure they get a second dose.