Another Mpox Public Health Emergency
On Aug. 14, the World Health Organization declared mpox — a disease caused by the monkeypox virus — a public health emergency of international concern for the second time in the last three years.
As FactCheck.org Staff Writer Kate Yandell writes, mpox -- which has been known to infect people in parts of Africa for decades -- began to spread around the world in 2022, causing the WHO and the U.S. to declare public health emergencies. Once cases outside Africa began to fall, the WHO and U.S. last year declared the health emergencies over.
But mpox cases are surging again, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- this time primarily from two other types, or clades, of the virus known as clade Ia and clade Ib. That means there are now three different outbreaks of mpox: two centered in Congo and the ongoing global outbreak that was recognized in 2022.
As of late August, there have been more than 20,000 mpox cases and more than 600 deaths reported in Africa in 2024, although not all are confirmed cases, given a dearth of access to testing. This compares with around 15,000 reported cases in 2023.
One type of the virus -- clade Ib -- has now spread to countries in Africa where mpox has not been historically reported. Sweden and Thailand have also each reported one imported case.
In her Q&A, Kate explains how people can prevent and treat mpox, why clade I mpox is on the rise now, and whether clade I mpox poses a global threat.
For more, read "Q&A on the Second International Mpox Emergency."
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