UK on alert for mpox cases after WHO declares global health emergency
ITVX explains why health officials are so concerned by the spread of mpox to countries that have never recorded outbreaks before
UK health officials are preparing for potential cases of a new strain of mpox after the World Health Organisation declared recent outbreaks in Africa a global emergency.
The strain, known as clade 1b, first emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cases of the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have been confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries.
Currently, there are no cases of the virus in the UK, as confirmed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Earlier this week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention announced more than 500 people had died from the disease, and called for international help to stop the virus spreading.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "This is something that should concern us all. The potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying."
According to the Africa CDC, mpox has been detected in 13 countries this year, with more than 96% of cases and deaths occurring in Congo.
Nearly 70% of cases in Congo are in children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85% of deaths, the Africa CDC's figures show.
Cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19% compared with the same period last year, with over 14,000 cases and 524 deaths recorded in 2024.
“We are now in a situation where mpox poses a risk to many more neighbors in and around central Africa,” said Salim Abdool Karim, a South African infectious diseases expert who chairs the Africa CDC emergency group.
The WHO declared mpox as a global emergency in 2022, after it spread to more than 70 countries where the disease had not previously been reported.
In 2022's outbreak, fewer than 1% of people died - but Karim says the new version of mpox spreading appears to have a death rate of about 3 to 4%.
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Before the 2022 outbreak, the disease had mostly been seen in sporadic outbreaks in central and West Africa when people came into close contact with infected wild animals.
Jacques Alonda, an epidemiologist working in Congo with international charities, said he was worried about the spread of mpox in refugee camps in the east of the country.
He said: “The worst case I’ve seen is that of a six-week-old baby who was just two weeks old when he contracted mpox.
“He got infected because hospital overcrowding meant he and his mother were forced to share a room with someone else who had the virus, which was undiagnosed.”
Save the Children said Congo’s health system already had been “collapsing” under the strain of malnutrition, measles and cholera.
WHO, the UN's health agency said mpox was recently identified for the first time in four East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Although WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to encourage donor agencies and countries to take action, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.
Dr Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University, said the last WHO emergency declaration for mpox “did very little to move the needle” on getting things like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to Africa.
“The world has a real opportunity here to act in a decisive manner and not repeat past mistakes, but that will take more than a declaration,” Dr Titanji said.
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