BarcelonaAs it did already in 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) has once again declared an international health emergency, its highest level of alert, due to the outbreak of monkeypox (Monkeypox) in Africa, where an unprecedented increase in cases has been recorded. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom announced Wednesday at a press conference, after analyzing the situation with 16 experts. “Today, the Emergency Committee confirmed to me and warned me that the situation in their view constitutes a public health emergency of concern. I have accepted this advice,” he said. The decision comes after the Africa Centers for Disease Control also declared a continental emergency due to the infection on Tuesday.
All members of the Emergency Committee agreed that the new outbreak of monkeypox, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was caused by a strain with “epidemic potential,” constituted an “exceptional event.” Among other reasons, the rapid increase in cases and the fact that such a large number of infected people had not been seen in the region since the 1970s.
The WHO also noted that this time the outbreaks are not the result of the spread of the same type of virus, but rather more than one type, and that different levels of risk and contagion have been observed, whereas almost two years ago the transmission was exclusively sexual. In addition to the severity of the outbreak in the DRC, there is particular concern about the spread of the disease to countries that have not previously experienced cases, such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. In fact, since the beginning of the year, the number of cases has exceeded the total of last year, with more than 14,000 diagnosed and 524 deaths, according to the WHO director.
Shortly after the state of emergency was declared, the Spanish Ministry of Health reported that the EU Health Security Committee had summoned member states on August 19. On the same day, a meeting of the ministry’s technical team will also be held to discuss the measures that will follow from the alert. The following day, the “alert report”, made up of representatives from all autonomous communities, will also meet to determine whether any recommendations for monitoring or vaccination will be changed. According to the latest epidemiological data, a total of 8,104 confirmed cases have been reported in Spain since 2022, of which 7,521 occurred in 2022. 264 cases have been reported in 2024, and 22 cases were registered in Catalonia last month.
What is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease (a disease caused by a virus transmitted from animals to humans) that is rare in European countries and produces symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients in the past, although less severe, such as rash, swollen lymph nodes, and fever. Cases occur mainly in tropical forest areas of central and western Africa, and outbreaks are common in countries such as the Congo and Nigeria.
At the end of July, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) considered the risk of this new strain reaching Europe to be very low. “The risk to the population of the European Union and the European Economic Area from the new type of monkeypox detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains very low,” the organization’s director, Pamela Rende Wagner, confirmed.
However, the Ministry of Health insists on preventive vaccination, especially among the most vulnerable population groups, whether unvaccinated people or those who have received only one dose, as the guidelines recommend receiving two doses at least 28 days apart.
How contagious is it?
In general, in Europe, transmission between people occurs via large respiratory droplets after prolonged face-to-face contact with an infected person. In comparison with Covid, transmission between humans is limited, because respiratory droplets do not remain in the air and are not transmitted by an infected person if they are asymptomatic. However, it should be noted that although it is not strictly a sexually transmitted disease, monkeypox is a sexually transmitted virus because it is spread through close intimate contact: with saliva, body fluids and contaminated materials such as sheets or sex toys.
This is the second time in two years that this infectious disease has been declared an international health threat, an alert that was initially issued in May 2023 after its spread was contained and the situation was deemed under control. The emergency declaration is a mechanism that WHO first introduced in 2005, and has since used in 2009 for influenza A, for Ebola in 2014 and 2018, for polio in 2014, for Zika in 2017, and for COVID-19 in 2020.
Once the emergency is confirmed, national health networks will now step up preventive measures: mainly, protecting vulnerable groups, intensifying public health measures, strengthening clinical strategies for prevention, control and treatment, and accelerating research into the use of vaccines and treatments.
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