WHO Launches $135 Million Plan to Halt Mpox Transmission in Six Months

Red Cross workers raise awareness about mpox and hygiene among internally displaced people in the Don Bosco camps in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: EFE/EPA/MOISE KASEREKA

August 26, 2024 Hour: 3:58 pm

The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday that the UN institution has drawn up a six-month plan to tackle outbreaks of mpox disease in Africa which requires 135 million dollars in aid.

WHO’s plan includes ramping up staffing in affected countries and boosting surveillance, prevention and response strategies.

“Together with our partners, we have developed a global strategic plan for preparedness and response to mpox, which we shared with all member states on Friday and which was published today,” said Tedros in the capital of the Republic of Congo, Brazzaville.

This plan, he said, seeks to minimize zoonotic transmission, empower communities to participate actively in preventing and controlling outbreaks, and promote research and equitable access to medical countermeasures, including vaccines.

"As #Mpox spreads, affected groups are shifting, with the virus also taking hold within households & other settings. Mpox can be particularly severe in children, immunocompromised individuals & pregnant women."

Read the @WHO preparedness & response plan: https://t.co/1ij6mXB1zj pic.twitter.com/AVKvpoi1nK
— AlignMNH (@alignmnh) August 26, 2024

The Director-General said he was convinced that with the leadership of affected countries, support from WHO and other agencies, this outbreak could be “quickly controlled.”

Almost 21,500 cases of mpox and 591 deaths due to the disease have been reported in 13 African countries since 1 January, according to the African Union (AU) health agency.

During this period, 21,466 cases (3,350 confirmed and 18,116 suspected) were detected in Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, Director-General of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya.

Africa CDC declared on August 13 the mpox as a “continental security public health emergency,” and one day later, the WHO declared an international health alert for mpox.

In addition, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Germany is donating 100,000 doses of mpox vaccine to affected countries from stocks held by its military, German news agency dpa reported.

According to spokesman Hebestreit, at a press conference, these doses will come from the reserves of the German army and be distributed in African areas by the latest outbreak of the disease in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.