The WHO aims to raise global authorities’ vigilance. It also hopes for more financial support for containment measures in Africa. The abbreviation PHEIC stands for “public health emergency of international concern.” The WHO is particularly concerned about a new variant discovered at the end of 2023 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a subline of the Mpox clade I (Roman numeral one). It is referred to as Ib.
According to local experts, it is likely more contagious than previous variants and could cause more severe infections, said Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian infectious disease specialist at Niger Delta University. He chaired the WHO emergency committee of independent experts who recommended that the WHO declare the emergency.
The European health authority ECDC assessed the risk of spreading the new variant in Europe at the end of July as “very low.” According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there are currently no known cases of clade I.
“Mpox is not easily transmissible,” said virologist Marion Koopmans from Erasmus University Rotterdam. “It spreads through direct contact and is therefore – theoretically – relatively easy to stop if it is diagnosed and identified.”
The Ib variant spreads, among other ways, through sexual contact, according to Ogoina. However, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainly small children have been infected, constituting a large proportion of the fatalities.