The column this week brings global health updates with a focus on mpox and other infectious diseases, as well as some news on alcohol marketing and other public health concerns.
Happy birthday to the National Rural Health Alliance!
The quotable?
This declaration highlights the urgency and gravity of the situation, demanding immediate and coordinated action across Africa.
We are mobilising all available resources, working closely with member states, strengthening partnerships, and intensifying efforts to contain and mitigate the impact of mpox.”
Calls to action on mpox
The international community has been urged to step up investment and collaboration to support the response to mpox outbreaks in Africa. Millions of vaccine doses, as well as major global investments in diagnostics, laboratories, surveillance, and health communication are needed, they say.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 14 August that it is declaring mpox a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ (PHEIC) – just 15 months after the end of the WHO’s previous mpox emergency. The declaration asks the world’s countries to work together and to provide resources to improve surveillance, treat those who are infected and stop the outbreak.
The outbreak prompted the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to declare its first-ever public health emergency on 13 August.
Last week more than 20 global health leaders – including Helen Clark, co-chair of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Professor Brendan Crabb from the Burnet Institute, Jane Halton, Chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Dr Selina Namchee Lo, Executive Director, Australian Global Health Alliance – called for urgent action to tackle mpox.
“There is every indication that without urgent action, mpox will continue to spread within the traditionally endemic countries and across borders, and that transmission could occur into other regions globally as it did in 2022 when people in more than 100 countries were affected,” they said in an open letter published on 8 August.
“Mpox, particularly the more dangerous clade I with higher rates of mortality, especially in immunocompromised individuals and in young children, cannot be allowed to become a widespread endemic disease across Africa or anywhere.”
The letter called for political attention and leadership at national, regional, and global levels to save lives, address gendered impacts, stigmatisation and discrimination and stop the spread.
Millions more dollars in international funding must be made available to work with communities to contain this outbreak, they said, suggesting lack of funding to date is likely a contributing factor to this now expanding outbreak.
Massively increased investment in research and development and support for Africa-based researchers to learn more about all aspects of mpox and develop locally-based and tailored solutions was also needed.
Nature: Growing mpox outbreak prompts WHO to declare global health emergency
UN News: WHO declares mpox virus a public health emergency of international concern
WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the IHR Emergency Committee meeting, 14 August
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