It's in the interests of the countries, of the continent and of the world to get our arms around us and stop transmission as soon as we can,
This outbreak has been smoldering for quite a long time, and we continually have missed opportunities to shut it down,
We need concerted international action to stem this recent, novel outbreak,
I think we learned a great deal about the speed with which this virus can spread,
This development has prompted the WHO to take decisive action, highlighting the need for increased vigilance and international co-operation to prevent further spread,
In Australia, vaccine rollout in gay and bisexual men averted a serious epidemic associated with the global gathering of LGBTQI+ people at the Sydney World Pride festival in early 2023,
Mpox is a slow-burning fire that has been allowed to smoulder in Central Africa and is flaring up again. This time the WHO is ringing the alarm,
If we want to avoid this condition becoming deeply established around the world it needs to be controlled in Africa,
Importantly, the strain that has led to a public health emergency in Africa has not been detected in Australia yet,
What we can do to help prevent that from getting worse is helping those areas with vaccines to help reduce that concern everywhere else around the world,
The risk of it moving is big. There’s the case in Kenya where a trucker brought it in, and people can get on a plane with it. This is what I’m most worried about because the cases we know about are the ones that have been very sick and coming to hospital, but what we don’t know is how many people have a milder infection
I knew this was something different because the symptoms were so different from clade 1 - what we normally see in the DRC,
These are two parallel outbreaks of two variants with different modes of transmission and at-risk groups, thus requiring different strategies for containment. They also differ in morbidity and mortality.”
This is a very, very bad situation,
This is the most dangerous clade of mpox we have ever seen,
I believe it will very easily spread elsewhere, particularly because people regularly travel from Goma - where there are currently cases - to Europe via the international airport there,
There is a real attempt right now to mobilise resources and that is why in part WHO called for the public health emergency now,
The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighbouring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,
There are two vaccines for mpox that have been approved by WHO-listed national regulatory authorities, and which are recommended by WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, or SAGE."
Mpox is a zoonosis, a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, with cases often found close to tropical rainforests where there are animals that carry the virus,