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STORY: WHO / MPOX PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY
TRT:9:15
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 AUGUST 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
14 AUGUST 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1.Wide shot, press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Mpox has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for more than a decade, and the number of cases reported each year has increased steadily over that period. Last year, reported cases increased significantly, and already the number of cases reported so far this year has exceeded last year’s total, with more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths.”
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Last week I announced that I was convening an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to evaluate the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries in Africa. Today, the Emergency Committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice.”
5. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“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. In addition to other outbreaks of other clades of mpox in other parts of Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
7. Wide shot, press briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“A public health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alarm under international health law. The Emergency Committee’s advice to me, and that of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which yesterday declared a public health emergency of regional security, are aligned.”
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO is on the ground, working with the affected countries, and others at risk, through our country and regional offices, as well as with partners including the Africa CDC, NGOs, civil society and more.”
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We’re on the ground supporting case investigation and contact tracing, risk communication and community engagement; We’re training health workers and supporting clinicians to provide appropriate care; We’re supporting countries to access vaccines and develop the strategies to roll them out; And much more.”
13. Wide shot, press briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“To fund this work, WHO has developed a regional response plan, requiring an initial 15 million US dollars. We have released 1.45 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies, and we plan to release more in the coming days. We are also appealing to donors to fund the rest of the response plan.”
15. Wide shot, press briefing room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO is committed in the days and weeks ahead to coordinate the global response, working closely with each of the affected countries, and leveraging our on-the-ground presence, to prevent transmission, treat those infected, and save lives.”
17. Wide shot, press briefing room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Dimie Ogoina, Chair, Emergency Committee:
“Ultimately, it's very important that you understand your outbreak for you to ultimately decide what group of persons to vaccinate. And we have that gap in parts of Africa where we don't fully understand the transmission dynamics and the risk factors for mpox that is expected to guide who we’re expected to vaccinate. And so all countries and state parties and I think all the countries represented had a costed plan. And some of those countries also had plans to ensure that they make a procurement of vaccines.”
19. Wide shot, press briefing room
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Abdou Salam Gueye, Regional Emergency Director, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have so far in Africa, two countries that we have reason to believe that there is community transmission, which are DRC and Burundi. For the other countries, though, you talk about Kenya, Uganda and recently Cote d'Ivoire, it is an isolated case and so far we do believe that there is no community transmission. It should be noted that in most African countries, over 40 of our 47 countries have a very effective, robust surveillance system that may miss some cases, but it would be very difficult that they miss a whole outbreak that is happening in the country.”
21. Wide shot, press briefing room
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tim Nguyen, Unit Head, High impact events preparedness, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So when it comes to the MVABN vaccine currently about half a million doses are in stock at the moment that can be procured by countries or other entities. Another, 2.4 million could be produced by the end of this year if request, if buyers are there to make a firm procurement request. And for 2025, there could be another 10 million doses, produced but there needs to be a firm request for those manufacturers to plan for the production.”
23. Wide shot, press briefing room
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tim Nguyen, Unit Head, High impact events preparedness, World Health Organization (WHO):
“When it comes to the LC-16 vaccine, this is a very special vaccine in terms of the… this vaccine is not commercialised, but at the moment, produced on behalf of the government of Japan. In previous incidences, the government of Japan was very generous when being asked to donate vaccine to countries and this is also one way for WHO to work with countries and with the Government of Japan to facilitate donation of the LC-16 vaccine.”
25. Wide shot, press briefing room
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Emergency Committee is working on drafting some temporary recommendations for the consideration of the Director General to issue. So that is something we expect to be able to release in the next day or two. The teams are working on it very hard, even as we speak, as we are sitting here and so with those targeted, temporary recommendations, there would be some advice for member states, affected member states, at risk member states.”
27. Wide shot, press briefing room
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, World Health Organization (WHO):
“With regards to transmission, there's multiple modes of transmission that we really need to better understand. Primarily, what we are seeing is the contact type transmission. We have seen sexual transmission, which is really what is concerning us and now we have seen this virus, the different clades, and in particular clade 1B in sexual networks. And this is where we need to have targeted interventions, stronger surveillance, stronger contact tracing, stronger risk communication, community engagement with affected communities, with CSOs, with people on the ground so that we could limit that onward spread.”
29. Wide shot, press briefing room
FILE – WHO - 24-25 APRIL 2024, MPENDA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
30. Various shots, in a village where WHO and health workers in discussion
FILE – WHO – 24 APRIL 2024, MPENDA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
31. SOUNDBITE (French) Dieu Merci Mongou Poutou, Mpox Survivor:
“Three of my children and I were infected. One was treated here (in Mpenda) and the other two were taken to Bikoro Hospital. After two weeks they were discharged from the hospital. A week later, my wife was infected.”
FILE – WHO - 24-25 APRIL 2024, MPENDA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
32. Various shots, community organisers and WHO engaging with local residents and raising awareness of mpox
FILE – WHO – 24 APRIL 2024, MPENDA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
33. SOUNDBITE (French) Willy Yolokanga, Community Organizer:
“Since the outbreak of mpox, we have been raising awareness at the health centre. We’ve gone into churches to sensitise more people. During our training as community mobilisers, we learned a lot of things such as how to identify cases.”
FILE – WHO – 25 APRIL 2024, BIKORO GENERAL HOSPITAL, BIKORO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
34. Wide shot, hospital entrance, with WHO and local health workers in conversation
35. SOUNDBITE (French) Dr Papi Mola, Head of internal medicine, Bikoro General Hospital:
“Eighty-five to 90 percent of infected people are cured if they are taken to hospital in time. Because if an infected person gets to an advanced stage with complications, it becomes difficult to treat them with the resources available here. People in the early stages of the disease are treated and discharged.”
36. Wide shot, hospital entrance
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has determined that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).
Dr Tedros’s declaration came on the advice of an IHR Emergency Committee of independent experts who met earlier in the day to review data presented by experts from WHO and affected countries. The Committee informed the Director-General that it considers the upsurge of mpox to be a PHEIC, with potential to spread further across countries in Africa and possibly outside the continent.
The Director-General will share the report of the Committee’s meeting and, based on the advice of the Committee, issue temporary recommendations to countries.
In declaring the PHEIC, Dr Tedros said, "The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said, “Significant efforts are already underway in close collaboration with communities and governments, with our country teams working on the frontlines to help reinforce measures to curb mpox. With the growing spread of the virus, we’re scaling up further through coordinated international action to support countries bring the outbreaks to an end.”
Committee Chair Professor Dimie Ogoina said, “The current upsurge of mpox in parts of Africa, along with the spread of a new sexually transmissible strain of the monkeypox virus, is an emergency, not only for Africa, but for the entire globe. Mpox, originating in Africa, was neglected there, and later caused a global outbreak in 2022. It is time to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself."
This PHEIC determination is the second in two years relating to mpox. Caused by an Orthopoxvirus, mpox was first detected in humans in 1970, in the DRC. The disease is considered endemic to countries in central and west Africa.
In July 2022, the multi-country outbreak of mpox was declared a PHEIC as it spread rapidly via sexual contact across a range of countries where the virus had not been seen before. That PHEIC was declared over in May 2023 after there had been a sustained decline in global cases.
Mpox has been reported in the DRC for more than a decade, and the number of cases reported each year has increased steadily over that period. Last year, reported cases increased significantly, and already the number of cases reported so far this year has exceeded last year’s total, with more than 15 600 cases and 537 deaths.
The emergence last year and rapid spread of a new virus strain in DRC, clade 1b, which appears to be spreading mainly through sexual networks, and its detection in countries neighbouring the DRC is especially concerning, and one of the main reasons for the declaration of the PHEIC.
In the past month, over 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Experts believe the true number of cases to be higher as a large proportion of clinically compatible cases have not been tested.
Several outbreaks of different clades of mpox have occurred in different countries, with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk.
The two vaccines currently in use for mpox are recommended by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, and are also approved by WHO-listed national regulatory authorities, as well as by individual countries including Nigeria and the DRC.
Last week, the Director-General triggered the process for Emergency Use Listing for mpox vaccines, which will accelerate vaccine access for lower-income countries which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval. Emergency Use Listing also enables partners including Gavi and UNICEF to procure vaccines for distribution.
WHO is working with countries and vaccine manufacturers on potential vaccine donations, and coordinating with partners through the interim Medical Countermeasures Network to facilitate equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other tools.
WHO anticipates an immediate funding requirement of an initial US$ 15 million to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities. A needs assessment is being undertaken across the three levels of the Organization.
To allow for an immediate scale up, WHO has released US$ 1.45 million from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies and may need to release more in the coming days. The Organization appeals to donors to fund the full extent of needs of the mpox response.
