The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). This decision was made during a media briefing by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In the U.S, there have been 1,634 cases of mpox reported so far this year, which is more than double the number of cases seen at the same time last year.
PHEICs were most recently declared for the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous mpox outbreak of 2022. Mpox is endemic to parts of Central and Western Africa, with cases rising dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this year. There have been over 14,000 cases and 524 deaths reported in the DRC.
There are two types of mpox, clade I and clade II, with a variant known as clade Ib causing the outbreak in the DRC. This variant appears to spread mainly through sexual contact. The rapid spread of clade Ib to neighboring African countries led to the convening of the WHO's emergency committee.
On Monday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared mpox a public health emergency of continental security (PHECS). The WHO published a report that found 934 new laboratory confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths from 26 countries in the month of June.
There have been no cases of clade I mpox reported outside Central and Eastern Africa, including in the U.S. The risk of the type of mpox circulating in the DRC is low to the American public. The JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the FDA, is currently being used in the U.S. to prevent mpox and has shown to be at least 85% effective in preventing infection.