Why Africa’s Mpox Outbreak Could Become the Next Global Pandemic

A “foreign problem”. This is how much of the world perceives the disease caused by the virus Smallpox -popularly known as monkeypox- which most intensely affects African countries.

THE World Health Organization (WHO) said a few days ago that The Mpox epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central Africa constitutes a global health emergency. the agency’s highest alert level for events that pose a risk to public health and urgently require support from the rest of the world.

In this sense, three researchers from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, specialists in infectious diseases – such as HIV, Covid, among others – have called for a reminder that An infectious disease like Mpox that occurs “in another part of the world” should not be considered “someone else’s problem.”

And history has already shown us that Diseases that seem far away can spread rapidly, across borders, and quickly become a pandemic, like the one we experienced in 2020 with Covid-19.

As the researchers explain in an article published in The conversation , Mpox was first discovered in captive monkeys in 1958, hence the name “monkeypox.”

12 years later, in 1970, the first human case was detected.

Despite this discovery, experts suggest that “It has been largely overlooked by the scientific and public health community as a rare infection.” in remote rural areas of tropical Africa, with no connection to the rest of the world.

Then came the massive outbreak of 2022 that took scientists and doctors by surprise.: The first big problem was that it was previously believed that contagion occurred through close contact with wild mammals (for example when handling their meat), but not so much between humans.

99,000 confirmed cases in 116 countries changed this perception and it was determined that It is a disease that is transmitted through sexual intercourse, contamination by respiratory droplets from an infected person and skin lesions.

As of August 2022, more than 6,000 new cases were being recorded per week. Fortunately, most cases have not had serious effects or consequences and only 200 deaths have been recorded.

Anyway, The staggering number of infections prompted the WHO to declare the outbreak a public health emergency for the first time. This is how they managed to “control” the epidemic through vaccines and education on disease prevention.

The second major problem that is reflected in the new epidemic today, according to researchers, is that High-income countries have offered modern vaccines and antiviral drugs against MPOX, particularly in the United States and Europe, but many much poorer African countries have been excluded from the campaign.

Nevertheless, Africa is the continent where Mpox has been endemic for a long time and where it is now experiencing a significant resurgence. which led the WHO to declare an international health emergency for the second time.

And what is most worrying is that There is a new strain that is more potent, more virulent and has a higher mortality rate. This would mean that if action is not taken as soon as possible, The virus could eventually spread easily to other countries around the world and thus infections would spread until reaching a pandemic. similar to that of 2020 with Covid-19.

“The current epidemic has its epicenter in the province of South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and “This could potentially fuel a major pandemic.” the researchers said.

Furthermore, they warned that Cases are currently increasing rapidly and there may be higher numbers that have not yet been recorded.

“To complicate matters, “A commonly used test has been found not to detect infections with this new strain of the virus.”

According to the researchers, who also published a recent scientific article in The Lancet Global Health on the subject— What is needed to contain this outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic is to have vaccines and treatments available in a timely and equitable manner.

“Equitable access to diagnostic tests, vaccines and antiviral treatments requires political commitment and financial investment.”

Hand in hand with the aboveExperts have called for a budget to conduct more scientific research to better understand how the virus works. what are the exposure environments, transmission routes and clinical presentations.

And they fear that monkeypox could become another high-risk but forgotten disease, like West Nile virus, Zika and Chikungunya.

With this in mind, experts from Stellenbosch University proposed the creation of the African-led Multidisciplinary and Multinational Mpox Research Consortium (MpoxReC) “to conduct research on how to eliminate Mpox as a public health problem.”

And, as they claimThere are global inequalities in resource allocation, access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments that were insufficient in most countries in Africa. Now, with the WHO warning, they hope that greater global investment will be made to combat this disease.

“There is no doubt that A disease that affects one part of the world can suddenly become a global health threat. It is time for the global health system to wake up to this reality.